The stars of Animal Planet’s “Whale Wars” have a new high-tech weapon in their arsenal: unmanned aerial vehicles.
Using their new weapon, the Sea Shepherd environmental group recently tracked down a Japanese whaling fleet 1,000 miles north of the whale sanctuary, where the Shepherds work to stop whaling.
“Right now we’ve deployed a drone which has gone up and taken aerial surveillance, which has located the factory vessel,” said Jeff Hansen, a spokesman for the group.
“Now all we have to do is simply get on the stern of that factory vessel and basically block them,” Hansen said.
Last year, the Shepherds used similar tactics to great effect, stopping Japanese whalers from killing more than 80 percent of their planned prey.
The Shepherds were so effective that Animal Planet thought about cancelling the show because they didn’t expect much action this year.
But the aerial drone should provide enough drama for the recently announced fifth season of the show, to air this summer.