A Greenpeace ship found the Japanese whaling fleet off Antarctica today, the environmental group said – setting off this year’s round of a cat-and-mouse contest that has become a sometimes dangerous feature of the hunting debate.

A Japanese whaling ship has begun moving away from the Antarctic coast under its own power, an official said today – 10 days after fire crippled the vessel and left it stricken near the world’s biggest Adelie penguin rookery.