[festus]

8 January 2006.- Greenpeace or Sea Shepherd activists throwing ropes and hooks near the Nisshin-Maru’s propeller to sabotage it. One rope and a buoy are already in the water.

To me that act constitutes piracy on the high seas. And while I'm no maritime lawyer I suspect that the whalers would have been well within their rights to scuttle the dingy and its occupants.

[proud_yank]

I am really surprised that they wouldn't have taken more action than they did. Those dinghies were swarming around like mosquitos. Be a shame if something happened to fall off the ship onto them.