Activist group Sea Shepherd said Sunday it had located the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean with the help of a military-style drone aircraft. The drone was launched from the Steve Irwin, one of three vessels that sailed from Australia this month on an annual mission to disrupt the commercial whaling that Japan carries out under the pretext of scientific research.
"Once the pursuit began, three Japanese harpoon/security ships moved in on the Steve Irwin to shield the Nisshin Maru to allow it to escape," Sea Shepherd said on its website.
The Nisshin Maru is the mother ship for the Japanese harpooning vessels that sail to the Southern Ocean in December.
Japan catches hundreds of whales each year in defiance of a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. Australia, supported by New Zealand, has begun legal action in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Sea Shepherd said the interception was significant because it was the first time in the seven-year history of confrontations that the group had located the fleet before a whale had been caught.