Steve Irwin's fighting spirit lives on
December 06, 2007 12:00am
TERRI Irwin is awaiting the day she reads the headline "Steve Irwin stops whaling vessel".

And it may happen sooner than later as the Crocodile Hunter's widow yesterday unveiled a new moniker for an anti-whaling ship owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

The newly christened Steve Irwin, formerly the Robert Hunter, left Melbourne yesterday bound for Antarctic waters where its crew will attempt to stop Japan's so-called "scientific" whaling.

With a crew of 41, including 12 Australians, the ship will spend about two months in the Southern Ocean pursuing Japanese whalers, who plan to take 935 minke whales, 50 endangered humpbacks and 50 endangered fin whales.

Ms Irwin called for Japan to end its whaling program.

"If you stop the whaling . . . you have the opportunity to be embraced by the world and held up as heroes for stopping something that should have ended along with slavery and cannibalism a long time ago," she said.

She said she and her late husband had been long-term supporters of Sea Shepherd and labelled the ship's captain, Paul Watson, a hero.

"I've lived vicariously through Paul for years. He's an action man. He doesn't let bureaucracy or anything get in the way," she said