Activists Tangle With Japanese Whaler

It's whaling season in the Antarctic Ocean, which means the rotten-butter-wielding activists at Sea Shepherd were busy making life miserable for the Japanese whaler Yushin Maru No. 2 today. Activists hurled paint and butyric acid—found in the aforementioned rotten butter—at the ship, as well as ropes designed to foul its rudder and propellers. Japanese authorities, who run the quasi-scientific group formed to dodge the ban on international whaling, were not amused, notes the AFP.

"The Institute of Cetacean Research strongly condemns the Sea Shepherd and its continued dangerous and violent actions against Japanese vessels and crews in the Antarctic," the Institute said in a statement, calling on "all related countries" to "restrain them and deal with their criminal actions in a strict and objective manner according to their international and domestic obligations." Sea Shepherd is on thin ice after three activists boarded another whaler Sunday; Japan has announced that it will not prosecute them, and instead will transfer them to Australia. (More whaling stories.)