"Whale Wars" Intensify

Sea Shepherd has been getting the fight it wants over Japanese scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean. After a recent second clash with the whaling fleet, now a Sea Shepherd activist has been arrested by Japan for boarding one of their ships and trying to arrest the captain for attempted murder. A Sea Shepherd ship was destroyed in January after being rammed by one of the Japanese whaling fleet's ships. Sea Shepherd believes that its tactics are valuable because they prevent the Japanese from catching as many whales as it could. But what is the effect for those countries trying to convince Japan to stop whaling via the International Whale Commission? I get the sense from news reports that the Japanese resent the pressure from other countries to stop whaling, even though many of them don't feel a strong urge to eat whale meat. Appearing to cave to the confrontational tactics of Sea Shepherd would probably also not be very popular.