Whalers found and pursued. Expedition leader Kieran has all the details:

Unfortunately, the Aurora could not dally, as it had to head to Prydz Bay to free the Polar Bird, another Austalian resupply ship which is presently beset in ice, but crew members with Iridium phones immediately began contacting friends, relatives, and media.

The whalers rediscovered
The whalers' whereabouts were now known, and armed with the necessary information, we closed in on their last known location. At around midnight last night, we found them again.

Echoes appeared ahead on the radar, and Waldemar, Neil, and Jeremy stood glued to the bridge windows, binoculars in hand. Almost simultaneously, they let out a collective roar, as each saw one or other of the fleet. Then the Nisshin Maru (their factory ship) materialized off our port beam. We were with them again. But obviously our actions of the past month were more than the whalers could bear, and rather than be subjected to them again, they took off.

The Nisshin Maru fled to the southeast, while the catchers, after some scrambling, gathered together and disappeared to the west. We stayed with the Nisshin Maru -- or at least attempted to -- as it sped off. Andy called them over the VHF. "Why do you run?" he asked. "Do you have something to hide? We are here to observe your science." Yuko tried, too, injecting some humour into her plea. "Please don't run. We are a slow ship and we can't keep up." Coincidentally or not, the Nisshin later began to slow down. After blasting away at 14 knots, it slowed to around 12.5, about .7 kts more than we could manage, but enough for us to keep it in sight. Then, suddenly, it slowed down and stopped. It was next to an iceberg, and then it nudged slowly behind the iceberg.

So we eased our way around the other side, to see the Nisshin tucked away and hiding from us. It promptly turned and headed back round the berg again. So we also turned right around and caught it coming out the other side. Then it turned once more, and began heading west. We did the same, paralleling its course as best we could to the northwest of it.

These cat and mouse games would go on all night. Give David's story a listen to hear more about them.

Eventually, at around 12.00 today, the NM turned north into the strong winds that were sweeping down from that direction, put on the power and began to pull away. Finally, now, at around 1800 local time and after eighteen hours of running, it is almost off our radar screen. But we are continuing to give chase. It may not have involved boats or helicopters, but this has been one of the most effective actions our crew has done so far. We have split up the fleet and forced the factory ship to run for a day and a half, and it hasn't stopped yet. Plainly, we're having an impact.

-- Kieran

p.s. Don't for get to write to countries that oppose whaling, and tell them to challenge the Japanese government's vote buying.