(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />Japanese whalers released new video and photographs on Monday (February 25) which they said show anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd's vessel ramming their harpoon ship in order to hamper fuelling in the Southern Ocean.<br/> <br />The Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), a Japanese group that runs the whaling programme, said in a release that Sea Shepherd's "Bob Baker" vessel collided with its "Nisshin Maru" and fuel tanker ship at least five times starting from noon on Monday.<br/> <br />The activists had been attempting to prevent refuelling between the tanker and the Japanese whaling fleet's 8,000-tonne factory when the collision occurred.<br/> <br />No Japanese crew members were injured, ICR said, and the damage to the ships was yet unknown, the release said.<br/> <br />Japan introduced scientific whaling to skirt a commercial whaling ban under a 1986 moratorium. It argues it has a right to monitor the whales' impact on its fishing industry.
