According to a communicate on Sea Shepherd's website, its flagship, the Steve Irwin, will return to Australia, in a yet undisclosed port, to refuel before continuing its chase of the Japanese whaling fleet, which continues to break international rules and hunt whales, although that is strictly forbidden worldwide since 1986. Paul Watson, the leader of Sea Shepherd, said that the whaling fleet was forbidden from harpooning any whales for about two weeks thus far.
"We have engaged them, we have stopped their whaling activities for two weeks and we have successfully chased them out of the Australian Antarctic Territorial waters," said Captain Paul Watson. "We now have to return to land to refuel. We don't have the luxury of refueling at sea like the Japanese fleet has,” Watson said.
“We don't have the resources to operate two ships down here and we don't have the support of Greenpeace to relieve us. We are doing the best we can with the resources available to us and we are having a significant impact on their kills," Steve Irwin's captain said.
The organization has been following the Japanese whaling fleet for the past couple of weeks, having traveled more than 2,000 miles eastwards, chasing it away from Australian waters, into those of New Zealand. During this time, the ships in the fleet found it impossible to hunt for whales and process any meat, because of Sea Shepherd interference.
However, the group announced that it lost track of the Yushin Maru #2 harpoon vessel, which broke off from the fleet as early as December 20th, when it was last sighted. But Paul Watson said that "The Yushin Maru #2 is not with the fleet and we have no idea where it is, but that ship cannot kill whales independent of the factory ship Nisshin Maru," which Sea Shepherd had under strict guard all the time. The Steve Irwin even collided with a Japanese ship a few days ago.
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