(From Sea Shepherd website) At long last, the Sea Shepherd 2007/2008 campaign to defend whales at the bottom of the world will hit the air waves tonight on Animal Planet across all the fifty U.S. States at 9:00P.M. It will air in Canada on Sunday, November 9th at 8:00 P.M.

According the Animal Planet President Marjorie Kaplan Whale Wars will be “Deadliest Catch meets Moby Dick.”

Some people will love it and some people will hate it but even the people who hate it will watch it to see what some critics have already called the most unique, most exciting, most cutting edge reality show of the season.

Deadliest Catch has men in boats in rough water and bad weather risking their lives – to catch crabs.

Whale Wars has men and women from a dozen countries in a boat in really rough water and extremely bad weather – saving whales with the added benefits of monstrous icebergs, breaching whales, penguins and dramatic confrontations with whalers.

Captain Watson and many of the Sea Shepherd crew will only get to see the first couple of episodes before they will have to head out at the end of November, on the good ship Steve Irwin, on the fifth voyage to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to defend the great whales.

And Animal Planet will be returning with them for a 2nd Season of Whale Wars as once again the Sea Shepherd crew head south to stop the illegal whaling operations of the Japanese whaling fleet.

Tonight’s Episode is titled Needle in a Haystack and opens with the crew of the Steve Irwin searching the vast remote frigid Southern Ocean for the Japanese whaling fleet. Training exercise almost turn into disasters as the green all volunteer crew gain their sea legs and prepare to engage the whalers at the bottom of the world.

‘Whale’ saviors on warpath for Japanese hunters
– USA Today. November 7th 2008

‘A ragtag band of eco-warriors headlines the most excitingunscripted series of the year.’
– Boston Herald. November 6th, 2008

“Whale Wars” splashes across the increasingly exhausted genre of people-at-work reality series like icy seawater, jolting you awake with a frothy, briny burst of – well, you get the idea. This is one spunky show.
– The New York Times. November 7th 2008

(This is my favorite line: “monstrous icebergs, breaching whales, penguins and dramatic confrontations with whalers.” Penguins??)