The Japanese whaling fleet is on the run and the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin is pursuing.

"We have reached the place where the Nisshin Maru was only hours ago. We are on their trail and will continue to pursue as they continue to run," said Captain Paul Watson.

Two years ago we chased the whalers for 3,000 kilmetres along this remote Antarctic coast," said Captain Watson. "We will continue to pursue them for as long as it takes. The whalers have a choice. They can stop and continue to kill whales and we will catch them or they can continue running without killing whales. Both options will work for us. As Sherlock Holmes would have said to Dr. John Watson, the 'game is afoot' and the chase is on."

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is glad to see that the Greenpeace ship Esperanza has the whaling fleet in sight.

"I'm counting on Greenpeace to slow the poachers down until we can catch up. I'm hoping they can block some harpoons and harass them enough until we can arrive to shut the criminals down."

The Greenpeace ship is still under strict orders to not cooperate with Sea Shepherd but Captain Paul Watson is a founding father of Greenpeace and he has his sources.

"We know where they are," said Captain Watson. "So there really is no need for them to withhold their position from the media and the public."

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society regards the Japanese whaling operation as a poaching operation. The Japanese are targeting endangered whales in a Whale Sanctuary in blatant violation of a global moratorium on whaling. They are as much criminals as elephant or Mountain gorilla poachers. We condemn Africans who kill wild animals for bushmeat yet governments are tolerating the biggest bushmeat butchers of them all and it is happening in Australian Antarctic Territorial waters. The Japanese whalers are a disgrace to civilized society and the government of Japan should be ashamed of their subsidies and support for these bloody minded Cetacean serial killers.