Wow, so many things to correct about things people have said in this thread. First off, I HIGHLY suggest watching the documentary Sharkwater as another poster mentioned. Look it up on youtube, the entire documentary is there in 9 parts. I first saw it a couple years ago when some of the producers of the documentary came and did a screening at my college.
The butyric acid that is tossed on the deck is not harmful to humans, just smells like s*** and causes discomfort to the whalers reducing the effectiveness of their whaling and therefore can not make as much money. The butyric acid also has the possibility of tainting the meat and making it unmarketable therefore reducing the money that the whalers make.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society approaches ships that are illegally fishing or whaling in sanctuaries. According to Webster Dictionary, the definition of "Sanctuary" is as follows: "2 a (1): a place of refuge and protection (2): a refuge for wildlife where predators are controlled and hunting is illegal"
The governments of countries do not do anything about illegal fishing and whaling, as illustrated in Sharkwater, because of the amount of money that it brings to those countries. The fishers pay large amounts of money to the governments to overlook their illegal activities and unfortunately the politicians are too easily consumed by greed to see what they are actually doing by overlooking the population-decimating slaughter of whales and sharks.
The poster that stated that the Steve Irwin talks to the Japanese in english and that the Japanese only speak japanese: The Steve Irwin has a Japanese citizen ship that speaks in japanese to the whalers. ALSO, I wonder how the Japanese respond to the Steve Irwin in english and be able to write these "research" posters if they only speak japanese.
I do agree that the crew should be better prepared. Some of the accidents that occur could be prevented with practice and better communication.
Next year I will be applying to volunteer to work with the Sea Shepherd. I hope to work with people or are actually out there doing something about illegal fishing.