Green Daily

They aren't pirates but radical anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd does fly the Jolly Roger on their boat, the Steve Irwin.

Yeah, it's named after that Steve Irwin.

On Friday night the jolly Sea Shepherd crew attacked Japanese whaler Kaiko Maru with 25 bottles filled with butyric acid from rancid butter.

Japanese officials are referring to the protesters as terrorists, and say that Sea Shepherd "menaced" the Kaiko Maru. Captain Paul Watson maintains that the Steve Irwin "lightly brushed" the whaler, by accident, and that their intention was merely to make the deck as slippery as possible with the rancid butter.

The International Whaling Commission allows the Japanese to capture a certain number of whales for research purposes. Activists like Sea Shepherd call shenanigans on the whole research angle and say that it's a cover for commercial whaling to continue since it was banned in 1986.

Captain Watson has vowed to follow the Japanese whaling fleet for as long as the Steve Irwin has fuel. I bet the crew of the Kaiko Maru is probably more worried about how much ketchup, soy sauce and olive oil they have on board.