A ship used to obstruct a Japanese whaling fleet arrived in Dunedin yesterday after spending nearly three months in the Antarctic.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society flagship Steve Irwin arrived at Birch St wharf about 10am.
The ship was used in direct action campaigns against whaling in the Southern Ocean.
Captain Wyanda Lublink said the 59m-long boat and its 36 crew members had been at sea for 83 days after leaving Melbourne on December 3.
The "boiling hot" weather in Dunedin and its "greenery" were a stark contrast to the Antarctic.
"We’re enjoying the sun. We’ve got our T-shirts and shorts on and we are going to have a beer later. It’s good to be back."
The ship was in Dunedin to refuel and would sail on Monday towards Australia.
"We have done very well — 83 days without getting fuel is a record ...
"We spent a whole lot of time there trying to stop the killing of the whales," Capt Lublink said.
A Japanese fleet killed 333 minke whales last season when the society did not have the funds to send its two boats — Steve Irwin and Ocean Warrior.
The 15-strong crew on Ocean Warrior was completing a campaign in the Southern Ocean as the whaling season was nearly finished.
Direct action by the two boats this season made "a really big dent" in reducing the number of the whales killed.
The ships followed the good weather in the "massive" hunting ground, as killing whales was difficult in bad weather.
The action of the ships included getting in between the harpoon and the whales and blocking the stern of the Japanese whaling fleet ship Nisshin Maru, where the whales were dragged up.
Using a helicopter, they found Nisshin Maru on January 15 and stopped whales being killed for more than 24 hours, she said.
The public can tour the ship in Dunedin between 10am and 5pm tomorrow and Sunday at Birch St wharf.
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Comments
A success - seriously! An 83 day voyage and they stopped whaling for one 24 hour period. If that is a success I really wonder what they call a failure.
A pathetic effort. 83 days of fuel and food wasted, but they get to scrounge money for another trip/holiday so it can't be all bad.
They did two trips down to Antarctica. They had two Harpoon vessels tracking them which were unable to hunt and kill Whales during those 83 days. The area where the Whaling fleet kill Whales is Massive and it is extremely hard to find them in the first place. And with harpoon ships radioing the factory ship Sea Shepherds location it makes it very hard to close in on her. Some years they have been very lucky with cruise ships and other ships giving Sea Shepherd the Whaling fleets location. But its like looking for a needle in a haystack over such a massive area. A couple of times they have also been lucky enough to just stumble upon the Factory ship. Its an extremely difficult Campaign and some years are better than others but all Sea Shepherd can do is give it a go and most of the time they are very successful. But hey if you think you can do better then buy yourself a ship, fuel it, crew it and do something yourself. The more people and ships the better. Or don't.