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Anti-whalers vow 'no surrender' as superboat sinks
SYDNEY -- Defiant anti-whaling activists on Friday vowed to fight on after their high-tech superboat sank in Antarctic seas following a collision with a Japanese ship.
That's one ...
Peter Hammarstedt, first officer of the Sea Shepherd group's "Bob Barker" ship, said the celebrated "Ady Gil" was abandoned in the Southern Ocean after a tow line snapped. "At this point unfortunately the Ady Gil is on the bottom of the Southern Ocean," he told AFP.
Where, while it will not form the vasis of a new coral reef, it will provide shelter for a large variety of fish, so some good has come of it. Not to mention the fun future underwater archeologists will have trying to figure out how it came to be there.
"It leaves us with no other option but to re-take up the pursuit of the whaling fleet," Hammarstedt said. "We have no intention of backing down. We will never surrender."
Who is asking them to surrender? We just want them to act completely unlike spoilt teenagers.
Same thing.
The futuristic trimaran, which held the round-the-world record, had several metres (yards) of its front end sheared off in the collision with a Japanese security vessel on Wednesday. Footage of the incident showed the "Shonan Maru 2" ploughing across the New Zealand-registered Ady Gil's bow and firing water cannon while its crew dived for safety.

Hammarstedt said the powerboat, bankrolled by Hollywood businessman Ady Gil, was being towed to an Antarctic port when the line broke overnight.

"Last time we saw the Ady Gil, the entire engine room was fully submerged in water as well as the fuel tanks," he said. "It was going down pretty quickly. Captain Pete Bethune estimated two to three hours before being fully submerged. At that point we decided to take up the hunt for the whaling fleet again."

New Zealand and Australian authorities are investigating the incident, while Japan lodged a strong protest with the Wellington government. Both the whalers and the protesters blame each other for the crash.

After abandoning the trimaran, the "Bob Barker", financed by a former US talk show host, resumed its pursuit of the Japanese fleet along with the "Steve Irwin", another ship operated by the Sea Shepherd conservation group.

Sea Shepherd claims to have saved hundreds of whales by chasing the Japanese fleet over a six-year campaign backed by Hollywood A-listers including Sean Penn, Martin Sheen and Pierce Brosnan.
That's all I need to know to choose sides ...
The skirmishes have grown increasingly sophisticated with the activists deploying laser-like devices and stink bombs, and the Japanese fleet operating military-style acoustic weapons and water cannon.

Australia is also investigating claims that the whalers chartered flights to spy on the Sea Shepherd ships and harass them using the Shonan Maru 2 security vessel.
Posted by: Steve White 2010-01-08
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=287432