I admit to having been a doubter about whether the activities of the Sea Shepherd group would ever achieve success in the efforts to thwart the Japanese catching whales in Antarctic waters but it seems there is a limit to the price the Japanese Government is prepared to pay to have more and more whale meat put into cold storage.  It appears that the anti-whaling activists have just made harpooning too difficult and hence too expensive and that the fleet is calling the whole game off.

The Netherlands newspaper De Volkskrant sees it as a victory for the “ecoterrorists” who like to promote their militant image sailing with a pirate flag. And the reason for the Dutch interest? Apparently Sea Shepherd boats sail under the Dutch flag. De Volksrant notes that an Animal Planet film crew happens to be filming on board for a documentary called Whale Wars.