Sea Shepherd calls for warships to intercept vessel poaching in Antarctic waters

Environmental campaigners Sea Shepherd have called on governments to use their warships to intercept a vessel wanted for poaching prized Patagonian toothfish in Antarctic waters, after the activists' three-month pursuit of the rogue fishing boat.

The chase at the bottom of the world has taken on a desperate edge, with the captain of the stateless and unregistered fishing boat, the Thunder, reportedly claiming that one of its crew had attempted suicide.

Sea Shepherd said it believed the Thunder's crewmen were being held against their will, and as slaves, they should be rescued by foreign navies. Sea Shepherd ships have been shadowing the formerly Nigerian-registered Thunder since it was first found using illegal gillnets to land toothfish on the Banzare Bank in Antarctica on December 17 .

The green group said the Thunder fled, abandoning fishing gear and the wildlife it had snared, and has been attempting to outrun the environmental group, which made its name with annual campaigns to disrupt the operations of Japan's whaling fleets. The attentions of Sea Shepherd have triggered a series of actions against the Thunder and five other vessels that have allegedly been carrying out illegal fishing operations. Yesterday, Sea Shepherd said Malaysian maritime authorities had detained another alleged toothfish poaching vessel, the Viking, and are questioning 18 crew, the majority Indonesian nationals but including Chilean and Peruvian citizens.

The captain of the ship, who has not been named and has refused to reveal his nationality, has been arrested, Sea Shepherd said. The Thunder has been unable to shake off the Sea Shepherd vessels Bob Barker and Sam Simon, and the attention prompted Nigerian authorities to remove the vessel from its registry of ships.

"That means that the Thunder is now officially a stateless, pirate-vessel, as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea," Sea Shepherd said in a statement.