Dispatches from a far southern ocean

This Magazine has been running an extraordinary series of dispatches on its blog, transmitted from the Sea Shepherd, the anti-whaling vessel confronting the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctic waters. Emily Hunter, who will be writing an article for the May-June issue of This, has vividly described the drama of the chase, including a collision with a whaler and being hunted by a Japanese ship intent on boarding the environmentalists' boat and destroying the photographic evidence they'd collected.

The battle this year is over, but the war continues [writes Hunter]. Its a war for the whales, but its also for a larger ecology. This is a war because the political conflict over whaling has spurred dangerous confrontations this year, the most dangerous in the history of this conflict.

Read the entire "Polarized" series .