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Anti-whaling activists aboard the Sea Shepherd vessel ‘Steve Irwin’ have covered a whaling ship with a smelly cocktail of rotten butter, methyl cellulose and indelible dye.

The unconventional sliming operation was carried out in a bid to intimidate the Japanese whaler, Kaiko Maru, into moving out of Australian Antarctic territorial waters. According to Peter Hammarstedt, the Sea Shepherd’s second officer, “this is one stinky, slippery ship.”

Activists claim the Kaiko Maru is hunting whales in the so called Australian Economic Exclusion Zone (AEEZ), in contravention of an Australian Federal Court Order specifically excluding all such activities.

Speaking about the protest, Steve Irwin Captain Paul Watson said, “Our objective now is to chase them out of Australia’s Economic Exclusion Zone. I have a chart here and it clearly states that these waters are Australian EEZ. There is an Australian Federal Court Order specifically prohibiting these ships from whaling in these waters. We have informed the whalers they are in contempt of this Court ruling.”

According to the Sea Shepherd press release, the crew have been pursuing the whaling fleet eastward for a week in a desperate game of cat-and-mouse in the frozen Southern Ocean. It can only be hoped that, as a result of the action, crew aboard the Japanese Vessel will smell the winds of change in public opinion on this issue and spead their sails in a hasty retreat home.

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Image Credits – Eric Cheng/Sea Shepherd