Environmental group Sea Shepherd is suing Japanese whalers, charging them with alleged piracy and attempted manslaughter. 

In papers filed in The Netherlands, the Sea Shepherd’s lawyers say, “On February 20 and 25, the Sea Shepherd boats were able to prevent an illegal refueling operation by Nisshin Maru.

“The Nisshin Maru’s captain then attacked these boats by repeatedly ramming them, by using water canon to flood the engine room and sabotage the engines and by throwing explosives.”

Captain Tomoyuki Ogawa is specifically listed as a defendant.

The group tried this tactic before, but prosecutors failed to follow up.  This time, however, the two ships involved in the case are Dutch-flagged:  The Steve Irwin and Bob Barker.

Those two ships as well as the Sea Shepherd’s Sam Simon sustained $1 Million in damage in run-ins with the whalers in the Southern Ocean this past whaling season.