MELBOURNE—Japan has dismissed as a lie claims by the captain of an anti-whaling ship he was shot at during the latest confrontation with a whaling vessel in the Southern Ocean.
Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society protest ship the Steve Irwin, said he felt a thud and found a bullet lodged in his bulletproof vest during a clash today between the two vessels.
He said crew members on the Steve Irwin were throwing stink bombs at the whaling ship the Nisshin Maru when Japanese coastguards responded by throwing flash grenades.
Mr Watson claimed one person was injured by the flash grenades and he felt the impact soon after.
"I felt an impact on my chest at one point and didn't think too much of it at the time and then when I opened up my survival suit - I had a bulletproof vest (on) - and there was a bullet lodged in it," he told ABC Radio.
The bullet hit him on the upper left side of his chest and bent a badge he was wearing underneath, Mr Watson said.
"If I wasn't wearing the vest it would have been pretty serious," he said.
However, Mr Watson said he did not know who had shot him.
"I didn't see anybody shoot at me and it was pretty hard for any of the crew to see anything because everybody was ducking from these flash grenades."
Today's incident, if confirmed, would mark a major escalation in the clashes between Sea Shepherd and the Japanese whaling fleet.
But Glenn Inwood, spokesman for the Japanese whalers, said Mr Watson was lying if he claimed to have been shot.
"Any claim from Paul Watson that he was fired at with a gun and has a bullet lodged in his bulletproof vest is absolutely false," he told ABC Radio.
"Japan has not fired at Paul Watson at all."
Mr Inwood, the New Zealand-based spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research, admitted "some retaliation" had occurred during today's clash but said he was waiting for more information.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said late today that Japan had denied firing any shots during today's confrontation.
Japanese officials had told the Australian Embassy in Tokyo that three "warning balls", also known as flashbangs, had been fired by the Japanese ship, he said.
"Japanese officials have advised that these devices are designed to make a loud noise but not to injure and that no gunshots had been fired."
Earlier, Mr Smith said Japan had told Australian officials "warning shots" had been fired by a crew member on the Nisshin Maru.
Mr Smith called for restraint from both sides in the increasingly bitter battle over whaling.
"I absolutely condemn actions by crew members of any vessel that cause injury - or have the potential to cause injury - to anyone on the high seas," Mr Smith added.
The latest clash follows a confrontation earlier this week between the two vessels, during which Sea Shepherd activists threw stink bombs and "slippery" powder at the Japanese whaler.
Japan claimed four of its crew members were injured in the clash, which Mr Watson denied.
He said the incident would not stop the protesters from continuing to try to stop the Nisshin Maru from illegally killing whales.
The whaling season would continue to run for another 12 to 13 days, he said.
"We'll take more precautions but we'll certainly not stop pursuing them.
"Every day we can stop them from whaling is a victory."
The Steve Irwin claims to have been tracking the Japanese using electronic bugs placed when two protesters boarded another whaling vessel, the Yushin Maru No. 2, in January.
Western nations, led by Australia, strongly oppose Japan's whaling.
Japan, which kills up to 1,000 whales a year, says whaling is part of its culture, and accuses anti-whaling countries of insensitivity.
It kills whales using a loophole in a 1986 global moratorium on whaling that allows "lethal research" on the giant mammals, although much of the meat ends up on Japanese dinner plates.