Sea Sheperd Conservation Society
The Sea Shepherd Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving marine wildlife and eco-systems. In contrast to, for instance, Greenpeasce, Sea Shepherd endorses a deliberate policy of sinking or sabotaging vessels they believe have violated international whaling law. See the wikipedia article for more.
There was a video of the Sea Sheperd's MV Steve Irwin confronting the Japanese whaler Nisshin Maru attached to Ilya's third email. A subsequent video blog told another side of the story.