Sea Shepherd takes fight to Chinese fleets fishing illegally

It took two days and nights for the exhausted crew of the MY Steve Irwin to recover the drift net that had been abandoned by the fleeing Chinese fishing vessel. Most of the 321 marine animals the 5km of illegal netting had entangled, including sharks, dolphins, bluefin tuna and seals, were already dead.

"It was the worst thing we could see but we knew it was the last time this net would kill and we could at least save a few of the animals - that was important," says Bernd Mutz, a former social worker from Dortmund, Germany, who took part in the operation.

Indonesian navy impounds Chinese trawler for illegal fishing

Mutz is one of the volunteers among the 35-man crew of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's flagship; he works for nothing except basic food and board. With its hull painted in a distinctive blue camouflage design, the 59-metre former Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency patrol vessel struck an imposing presence while anchored in Hong Kong's western harbour approaches last month, a spot often reserved for visiting warships. The vessel is best known for the high-profile and hazardous high-seas confrontations with Japan's whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean made famous by reality-television series Whale Wars.

After a decade of conflict, the Steve Irwin, renamed in 2007 in honour of the late Australian conservationist and TV personality, can boast its own battle honours - and a few war wounds, too.

This year, the radical conservation organisation, whose members were once branded eco-terrorists and pirates (an image encouraged by the flying of a Jolly Roger-style black ensign), has a more visible presence in Southeast Asian waters and it appears to be changing tack. While the commitment to ending commercial whaling remains undiminished, there is an increasing focus on preventing illegal fishing on the high seas and enforcing international fisheries law. That was the focus of this year's Operation Driftnet, which involved chasing down a new enemy and using very different tactics and strategy, as Sea Shepherd enters uncharted waters.