Japanese whalers attacked by "green" Pirates

Pirate ship Robert Hunter approached Japanese through ice

The hardline anti-whaling activists of Sea Shepherd have found and attacked the Japanese whaling fleet off Antarctica early today.

After weeks of searching for the whalers unsuccessfully in the Ross Sea, the two Sea Shepherd vessels Robert Hunter and Farley Mowat appear to have taken the fleet by surprise.

Sea Shepherd's president, Paul Watson, told the SMH online that his ships evaded satellite surveillance in order to pounce on the fleet near the Balleny Islands, far south-west of Tasmania.

"I ran the ships through the ice fields south of the Balleny Islands and came up on them from the other side," Captain Watson said.