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A dangerous cat-and-mouse game between anti-whaling activists and Japanese whalers nearly sparked a search and rescue operation on Friday after two activists went missing.
The Australian and American crewmen got lost in fog during the confrontation near the Balleny group of islands in the Southern Ocean.
A mayday message was issued after radio contact was lost with one of their inflatables.
The pair were eventually found by their ship Farley Mowat after going missing for six hours in the Ross Sea. Scientists say the men would have been unlikely to have lived for more than eight hours in the freezing conditions, despite their survival suits.
They drifted away in frigid fog after a dawn attack on a Japanese whaling fleet.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter is urging both sides to be sensible. He says if the protesters continue firing nail guns and throwing acid, and the whalers continue fighting them off with water cannons, someone will be killed.
After issuing a distress call the protesters had to ask their enemy to act as an ally and help find their crew members, which the Japanese whaling fleet did.
"Obviously you know after searching for them for about seven hours the crew's pretty jubilant - very happy to have them back onboard safe and sound - and they were pretty happy to see us as well," Robert Hunter crew member Johnny Vasic says.
With responsibility for those waters lying with New Zealand the search was organised here, but it is the sort of drama the government wants to avoid.
"The New Zealand government is really concerned about the confrontation tactics that are now occurring in the Southern Ocean. This is the very thing that we feared which is why we didn't release the co-ordinates of the Japanese whaling fleet. This is an extremely dangerous environment - human life is very much at risk in this environment," Carter says.
This is not the first time Sea Sheperd crews have used risky tactics. They rammed a whaling vessel last year and it is likely there will be more storms before these waters calm on Saturday with Greepeace's brand of protest expected to continue.
The two Sea Shepherd vessels have or are about to lose their registrations making them pirate vessels.
Negotiations are now under way with the NZ and Australian governments as to whether the boats will be able to dock in NZ.
