Sea Shepherd earlier made name for itself — and got its own reality TV show — by battling Japan’s whalers.
Wearing bulletproof vests and backed by a helicopter, activists well known for their anti-whaling campaigns plan to sail into Libyan waters to stop poachers from netting highly endangered bluefin tuna.
Sea Shepherd will send two boats into the war zone — the 190-foot Steve Irwin, named after the Australian conservationist, and the 115-foot Gojira — said Paul Watson, founder of the group based in Friday Harbor, Wash.
In a statement, Sea Shepherd added that the “deck crew and bridge officers have been outfitted with bulletproof vests for this campaign in the event that the poachers are armed and potentially violent.”
