Animal Planet Starts Filming on ‘Whale Wars’ Spin-off

A new article:

Simon Ager/Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, via Associated
PressA Sea Shepherd environmentalist aiming a
slingshot at a Japanese whaling ship in the Antarctic Ocean.

The Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society, the environmental group featured on the
Animal Planet series Whale Wars,
may be down one ship in its fleet at present, but that
hasnt discouraged that cable network from
ordering a second series about the group and its efforts to halt
whale hunts around the world. On Monday, Animal Planet announced
that it had started filming on a program tentatively titled
The Faroe Islands Project, which
it said will chronicle Sea Shepherds campaign
to stop an annual whale hunt known as The
Grind in the Faroes, an island group and Danish
protectorate between the Norwegian Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Animal Planet said in a news release that the new series will
feature many of the Sea Shepherd crew members from
Whale Wars, including Capt. Paul
Watson, Peter Hammarstedt, Chris Aultman and Chad Halstead, as well
as their ships the Steve Irwin and the Brigitte Bardot. The Steve
Irwin, the groups 194-foot flagship vessel,

was recently impounded by a Scottish court

following a claim
filed by a Maltese company, which seeks damages from a 2010
incident in which Sea Shepherd released bluefin tuna from the
companys nets near Libya. A statement from
Animal Planet described the ships seizure as
an unforeseen hurdle, and Sea
Shepherd says it
must post a bond of about $1.4 million

or it will lose the
ship.

The Whale Wars series focuses
on Sea Shepherds efforts to stop Japanese hunts
near Antarctica; Japans agriculture ministry
said
the groups interference

was largely
responsible for the low yield from its most recent hunt in
February.

Animal Planet said it had not yet determined a premiere date for
The Faroe Islands Project or
decided how many episodes it would order.