How Sea Shepherd lost battle against Japan’s whale hunters in Antarctic

The Southern Ocean was a sanctuary - but now Japan's boats have military hardware and conservationists can no longer track them

A fleet of Japanese ships is currently hunting minke whales in the Southern Ocean. It is a politically incendiary practice: the waters around Antarctica were long ago declared a whale sanctuary, but the designation has not halted Japan's whalers, who are continuing a tradition of catching whales "for scientific research" in the region.

In the past, conservation groups such as Sea Shepherd have mounted campaigns of harassment and successfully blocked Japan's ships from killing whales. But not this year. Despite previous successes, Sea Shepherd says it can no longer frustrate Japan's whalers because their boats now carry hardware supplied from military sources, making the fleet highly elusive and almost impossible to track. As a result the whalers are - for the first time - being given a free run to kill minke in the Southern Ocean.