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Racing to save the whales
Home » Blog » Sophie Bond » Racing to save the whalesPiracy in southern oceans. Battered ships and the powerful whaling warlords. The unfolding story of the attack on an anti-whaling vessel is straight out of an action film.
The Ady Gil in better days. Photo by BotheredByBees via Flickr.
The Ady Gil, the former Earthrace speedboat, was in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica harassing a Japanese whaling ship when its bow was sheared off in a collision.
Both sides blame the other for the collision which took two and a half metres off the front of the vessel and has left it immobilised.
The Ady Gil sails for the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and is captained by Aucklander Pete Bethune. The crew now hopes the boat can be towed to the French Antarctic base where a supply ship with a crane could hoist it on board.
Environmental artist Martin Adlingtoon has launched a campaign to rebuild the Ady Gil and get it back to the buisness of saving whales.
You can check on progress and pledge money here.
Around this time of year a Japanese whaling fleet heads to Antarctic waters for what it describes as a scientific whaling programme. But whale meat is eaten in Japan and it's highly likely the programme is a front for commercial whaling.
You can read what Greenpeace has to say about whaling here.
