1) What happened to Whale Wars and will there be another season?

Whale Wars is an Animal Planet series following seven of our Southern Ocean whale defense campaigns, from Operation Migaloo 2007/2008 to Operation Relentless 2013/2014.

Following the 2014 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling against Japanese whaling in Antarctica their fleet took a one year hiatus from operations, which allowed us to launch Operation Icefish in late 2014. Operation Icefish was the first campaign of its kind targeting a band of six illegal fishing vessels in the Southern Ocean, otherwise known as the Bandit Six. Sea Shepherd's epic 110 pursuit of the poaching vessel Thunder ended when the captain ordered the scuttling of the ship off the coast of São Tomé in central West Africa to hide evidence from authorities. The chase and the arduous hauling operation to retrieve 72km of abandoned fishing gear were featured in Animal Planet's recent series, Ocean Warriors. After the Japanese whaling fleet resumed operations during the 2015/2016 season and slaughtered 333 minke whales (230 of which were pregnant females) a decision was made by Sea Shepherd Global's Board of Directors to return to the Southern Ocean for the 2016/2017 season with our newest patrol vessel, the Ocean Warrior. This campaign, Operation Nemesis, is currently underway.

Once again, Animal Planet’s film crew is on board both the Ocean Warrior and our flagship the Steve Irwin capturing every aspect of the current campaign. Although we get a lot of questions from supporters asking us when the next season of Whale Wars will air, that’s entirely in the hands of Animal Planet once the campaign has concluded.

In the meantime, Sea Shepherd Global will continue its mission to defend, conserve and protect marine wildlife and end the destruction of habitat. Find the latest campaign news and updates posted regularly on our website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

2) I thought only Japan’s JARPA-II was deemed to be illegal, what about NEWREP-A?

Whaling has been illegal under the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on commercial whaling since 1986. However the Japanese whaling fleet exploits a loophole that allows for 'scientific' whaling. In 2014 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the whaling fleet's poorly designed 'research' program called 'JARPA-II' was 'not for scientific purposes'.

The whaling fleet countered the suspension of 'JARPA-II' with 'NEWREP-A', a new poorly designed 'research' program to replace it. Given very little has changed other than a reduction in quota and an increase in whaling grounds, it is likely that the ICJ would once again rule against the scientific basis of the program. However, following the 2014 verdict, Japan simply decided the ICJ had no jurisdiction in “any dispute arising out of, concerning, or relating to research on, or conservation, management or exploitation of, living resources of the sea”.