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Marine

Japanese whalers smash the Ady Gil stealth trimaran in half on their first meeting

By Loz Blain
January 06, 2010
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Less than 2 months into its tour of duty as an anti-whaling vessel, the Adi Gil has been smashed and sunk by a Japanese whaling team.
Less than 2 months into its tour of duty as an anti-whaling vessel, the Adi Gil has been smashed and sunk by a Japanese whaling team.

Enviro-warrior stealth boat the Ady Gil has reportedly been rammed by a security vessel employed to protect a Japanese whaling ship. The crew of the Ady Gil had been launching projectiles at the Nisshin Maru whaling vessel and attempting to entangle its propeller with rope, when the 1.5 million dollar craft was suddenly approached and rammed by the Shonan Maru, one of the Japanese security vessels. The attack smashed the sleek biodiesel-powered trimaran in half, and it sank, although the crew of six has been rescued uninjured.

So much for the stealth approach. Less than two months after the $1.5 million Ady Gil was donated to Sea Shepherd to be used as part of anti-whaling protests in the Southern ocean, it lies smashed on the Antarctic sea floor.

Skipper Pete Bethune and his crew made their first contact with the Nisshin Maru and its security vessels earlier today, and began efforts to disrupt the whalers' activities. To date, the Japanese have been harpooning for about a month.

The attack leaves Sea Shepherd with two ships, the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker, which are en route to the scene, apparently with every intention of escalating the situation.

Via The Age.

Update: CNN has video of the incident.

Tags

MarineStealthAntarcticWhale
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Loz Blain
Loz leads the New Atlas team as Editorial Director, after nearly two decades as one of our most versatile writers. He's also proven himself as a photographer, videographer, presenter, producer and podcast engineer. A graduate in Psychology, former business analyst and touring musician, he's covered just about everything for New Atlas, concentrating lately on clean energy, AI, humanoid robotics, next-gen aircraft, and the odd bit of music, motorcycles and automotive.
24 comments
JWWright
Ha ha! Sweet! Enviro-fascists have it coming to them. Next!
Wragie
Yup thats what happens when you go swanning about like a bunch of pirates.
Guido666
Serves those idiots right. I\'m amazed at how clueless they act on the Whale Wars show on Discovery channel. They seem like such morons that I\'ve wondered if it was staged to gain sympathy. I guess not.
I hope there filming a new season, because I can\'t wait to see this.
arnuxii
They must have had bozo the clown at the helm, of course the whaling ship would try to ram them. If they had a clue they would have speed away.
Great victory to the Japanese.
robinyatesuk2003
I watched a clip of the incident and was amazed when the Ady Gil made no attempt to get clear of the Japanese security boat, who immediately realised the enemy was dead in the water !, whoever was driving the Ady Gil should bear responsibility for it\'s demise
Nrwhd
\"All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing\"
I salute the crew of the Ady Gil for protecting the Law of Australia when our government will do nothing.
The other comments here disgust me, I thought the readers of Gizmag could see past the end of their noses to the real issue here - the poaching of marine life.
CreativeApex
Since the purpose of \'Whale Wars\' and the actions by the captain of the Steve Irwin are to increase public awareness of Japanese whaling \'research\' it is no wonder why someone might question whether the intent was to smash the Adi-Gil on purpose. I\'m fairly certain the larger vessel has right of way. This video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH_5wEWaqe8 clearly shows that the Adi-Gil had forward propulsion engaged and did not correct their course. If there were a type of boat to be rammed into a steel hulled vessel, it would be a carbon-epoxy hull which would clearly not endanger the larger craft. The tv show purports it\'s volunteers are ready to die for their cause. I\'m sure that maxim includes an understated but very real \'will not endanger others\'.
Chio Choi
Geez composites will yield to steel alloys WTH were they thinking. They have a suicidal plan they need to re-think their game plan absolutely no strategy.
Jerid Ure
Whale meat tastes like crap anyways. The Japanese love that stinky greasy meat so much that they\'re willing to kill these amazing creatures. Perhaps someone should start sinking their ships.
Loz
Posted in wrong comment section by \"fox4hhh\" - I\'ve reposted it in here:
---
\"Brutal slaughter of a dwindling whale population?\" First of all what proof do you have that the whale population is dwindling? Everything I read except for data from organizations that have a financial stake in or political agenda in the demise of the whale says that whale populations have continued to grow at remarkable rates. As for the tree hugging nuts that try to damage property and ruin the livley hoods of comercial fisherman they got what they deserved. They should all be sank and their crews sent floating like anyother pirate. I dont understand why these comercial whaling/fishing vessals arent armed to the teeth to protect their property and their lives. Hopfuly the next Addy Gale gets sent to Davey Jones\' locker as well. Happy whaling/fishing fellas.
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