The Sea Shepherd crew reports that the Japanese whaling fleet managed to kill one whale today, even in the midst of a hot pursuit from the anti-whaling ship, the Steve Irwin.

Captain Paul Watson deployed his two small boats to the Nisshin Maru, the whaling fleet’s factory ship, where crew members threw “rotten butter bombs” onto the deck in an attempt to spoil the fresh whale meat. The whalers responded by throwing whale blubber back at the activists.

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Sea Shepherd, the controversial direct-action anti-whaling group featured on Animal Planet’s Whale Wars, is currently facing retaliation from the Japanese whaling ships in the form of what Sea Shepherd calls a “military grade weapon system that sends out mid to high frequency sound waves designed to disorient and possibly incapacitate personnel.”

If their description is accurate, the Japanese are acting out of accordance with international law by deploying military weapons in the Antarctic Treaty Zone. But breaking international law wouldn’t be anything new for the whalers, who by some interpretations should not even be in the Antarctic at all.

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Under a secret deal brokered between the six nations of the International Whaling Commission, Japan could be able to increase its whaling quota in the Northern Pacific Ocean in exchange for an agreement to slowly cut all its operations in the antarctic.

However, Greenpeace and other environmental groups are furious over the deal because it could result in more deaths under the supposedly scientific program. Greenpeace also plans to pressure the IWC to make its procedings more transparent to the public in the future before any deals are reached.

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Japan had requested a port closure from Australia that would ban Sea Shepherd from their ports, claiming that the anti-whaling group should be treated like pirates due to their aggressive tactics.

“The Steve Irwin will be permitted to dock at an Australian port,” said Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard. “There is insufficient reason to prevent the Steve Irwin from doing that.”

Japan has recently accused Sea Shepherd of ramming one of their ships, and later interfering with the search for a lost crew member. They had previously refused Sea Shepherd’s help in that search.

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After a man fell from a Japanese whaling ship into the freezing antarctic waters, the whalers have called off all operations while in search for the man’s body.

Sea Shepherd, usually the arch nemesis of the whalers, offered to help find the body with their two small boats and helicopter, but the Japanese refused saying they would not require any help from an “eco-terrorist organization.”

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Darryl Hannah, who once played a mermaid, will be joining the hard-line anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd on their annual chase of Japanese whaling ships. Sea Shepherd is the focus of an Animal Planet Series,

“Whale Wars”.

Hannah will be joining Sea Shepherd on their flagship, the Steve Irwin, as they left yesterday to chase down Japanese whalers and attempt to use non-violent means to stop the whaling. Sea Shepherd is known for their hard-line stance against whaling and for their pirate-like tactics. They have in the past been labeled “eco-terrorists” and confrontations between whaling ships and the Steve Irwin have sometimes turned violent.

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