2007
In February 2007, the Robert Hunter joined the Farley Mowat in order to prevent the Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru from hunting in an action Sea Shepherd called Operation Leviathan. Sea Shepherd members threw bottles of butyric acid onto the decks of the Nisshin Maru. The Japanese say three members of the whaler were injured in the attack. The Robert Hunter and Farley Mowat obstructed the path of the whaling ship, and the Robert Hunter and Kaiko Maru collided with each other. One Japanese official accused the Sea Shepherd organisation of behaving "like pirates". The Robert Hunter sustained a 3-foot gash in the hull above the waterline at the stern of the ship. Three days after the collision, an unrelated fire broke out in the engine room of the whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru and killed one crew member.
The Steve Irwin has also participated in "Operation Migaloo" (named after Migaloo, the albino humpback whale) that started in November 2007, and after repairs were completed in Launceston and a brief stop over in Melbourne, she was scheduled to depart for the Antarctic on December 1, 2007.
Read more about this topic: MY Steve Irwin, Career