Photo: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, best known for its aggressive tactics against whaling vessels, had added a stealthy, high-speed boat to its fleet. At The National Post, Jeremy Barker writes:
The Ady Gil, a bio-diesel powered trimaran, can hit 40 knots and Captain Paul Watson plans to sail it quickly into harms way....The Andy Gil, which has circled the globe in a little over 60 days, has been coated with radar blocking black paint, which will be used as an 'intercept and blocking' weapon against the Japanese fleet.
More pictures and video at the link.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2009/11/09/anti-whalers-sea-shepherd-buy-record-holding-powerboat.aspx | Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Renamed the Ady Gil and painted a nice black, the self styled eco warriors from Sea Shepherd have been touting this ship as their new weapon against Japanese whaling.
All we noticed were the two giant propellers at the back of the vessel that to us looked like big trouble for whales.
With a top speed of 45 knots the renamed Ady Gil credits at least one very serious collision with "submerged debris" during her life at sea.
"Shortly after leaving Palau on day 34, Earthrace struck submerged debris which sheared two blades off the port propeller and bent the drive shaft. This necessitated a return to Palau in order to assess the damage and remove the prop."
The propellers are German-designed, carbon propellers that are 36 inches in diameter.
To date Sea Shepherd have not provided "propeller shrouding" for these whirling Ginsu Knives of the Antarctic and intend on putting this vessel in between Japans harpoon vessels and the whales. Propeller shrouding would protect whales from these extreme blades while still allowing this vessel to "close intercept" with the animals and Japanese whalers.
Did Sea Shepherd or anyone in the eco media stop to think about this?
Clearly, in the rush to congratulate yet another futile season of reality television, no one did.