Anti-whaling protesters threw bottles containing a pungent chemical at a Japanese whaling ship in a skirmish near Antarctica yesterday, injuring three of the crew, Japan?s Fisheries Agency said.

The whalers responded by spraying the activists, on a ship operated by the hardline Sea Shepherd group, with water from four hoses, an agency official said. The whaling ship Nisshinmaru and the Sea Shepherd vessel came within 10 metres of each other during the exchange, which lasted over an hour until the activists had run out of missiles, he said. ?This is an act that tries to unfairly harm the safety of a ship and crew that is acting within the law at sea,? Japan?s top government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference. ?It?s an unforgivable act and we protest strongly.? He said Japan would consider lodging a diplomatic protest with Australia, as the activists ship had sailed from an Australian port. Some of the pungent chemical splashed into the eyes of two Japanese coastguard crew and one whaler causing irritation, said the official, who declined to give the location of the incident for security reasons. The chemical was washed out, but doctors said may cause soreness for some time, he said. Japan, which considers whaling to be a cultural tradition, abandoned commercial whaling after agreeing to an international moratorium in 1986, but began what it calls a scientific research whaling programme the following year. Australia has promised to try to stop Japan?s whaling programme but the two countries have agreed not to let the issue hurt bilateral ties.