The campaign has drawn world-wide attention to the issue of poaching vulnerable Antarctic and Patagonian toothfish and has led the way for an unprecedented level of international cooperation in the fight against illegal fishing in the world's oceans.

In early December 2014, two Sea Shepherd ships, the Bob Barker Captained by Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden, and the Sam Simon, Captained by Sid Chakravarty of India, departed Australia and New Zealand respectively to patrol the Southern Ocean shadowlands. The ships were in search of the six remaining toothfish poaching vessels – which Sea Shepherd calls the “Bandit 6” - known to operate illegally in the waters of Antarctica.

On December 17 2014, the Bob Barker intercepted the most notorious of the poaching vessels, the Interpol-wanted Thunder, on the Banzare Bank, Antarctica. In the four-and-a-half months that followed, the Sea Shepherd ship engaged in a world record-breaking pursuit of the poaching vessel, covering approximately 11,533 nautical miles, from the Southern, to the Indian and finally ending in the Atlantic Ocean.

On December 25 2014, the Sam Simon commenced a four week-long operation to remove 72 kilometres of illegal fishing gear abandoned by the Thunder when it first fled from the Bob Barker. The confiscated gear was later handed over to local authorities in Mauritius, initiating the first ever investigation into a fishing vessel issued with an Interpol Purple Notice.

On February 2, the Sam Simon intercepted another two of the “Bandit 6” vessels, the Kunlun and the Yongding, in Australian waters west of the Ross Sea, and subsequently pursued the Kunlun out of its Southern Ocean hunting grounds.

In March, the Kunlun and another of the “Bandit 6” vessels, the Viking, both of which have been issued with Interpol Purple Notices, were detained by authorities in South East Asia. Investigations into their crimes are currently underway.