 In that same year, the environmental group Greenpeace launched Project Ahab, the first direct action anti-whaling campaign, which intercepted the "Dalniy Vostok" fleet 60 nautical miles off the coast of Eureka, California.Although the activists failed to prevent the catcher ship "Vlastny" from firing over their heads and killing a whale, they nevertheless galvanized the then-new anti-whaling movement.Two further confrontations in 1976 and 1977 further destabilized the Soviet’s position as their taking of undersized whales and other infractions were publicly exposed for the first time.