XPost: alt.canadian, soc.culture.european, alt.canadian.beaver   
   From: abc@123.cl   
      
   Space-age powerboat to harass Japan whalers: activists   
      
      
   November 14, 2009   
      
      
   This photo released by the Sea Shepherd Society, shows the   
   organisation's newest ocean defense vessel: the "Ady Gil," seen at an   
   undiclosed location in the US. The super-fast, space-age powerboat   
   which scythes through waves and smashed the round-the-world record is   
   set to be unleashed on Japanese whalers next month, according to   
   activists.   
   Photograph by: AFP,   
      
   SYDNEY – A super-fast, space-age powerboat which scythes through waves   
   and smashed the round-the-world record is set to be unleashed on   
   Japanese whalers next month, activists said on Friday.   
      
   The tri-hulled, kevlar-and-carbon vessel, which can manage speeds up to   
   50 knots (57 miles/93 kilometres per hour), will chase the   
   controversial boats during their annual hunt in seas south of   
   Australia.   
      
   The futuristic "Ady Gil", formerly known as "Earthrace", jetted round   
   the world in just under 61 days last year, two weeks faster than the   
   previous record circumnavigation.   
      
   Campaign spokesman Paul Watson said the boat will pursue the Japanese   
   harpoon boats and stop them spearing whales killed in their hundreds in   
   waters off Antarctica each year.   
      
   "The Ady Gil will be our interceptor. It will be able to latch on to a   
   harpoon boat and prevent it killing any whales," Watson told AFP.   
      
   "It should be able to run rings around them."   
      
   Watson said the boat, bankrolled to the tune of one million dollars by   
   Hollywood businessman Ady Gil, will accompany the "Steve Irwin" ship   
   during the three-month campaign from early December.   
      
   In an increasingly bitter campaign, activists have boarded a whaling   
   ship and hurled stink bombs and rancid butter at the fishermen, while   
   accusing the Japanese of warding them off by using ear-piercing sonic   
   weapons.   
      
   Environmental groups, as well as anti-whaling nations led by Australia   
   and New Zealand, have attacked Japan for the annual expeditions,   
   criticizing them as cruel and unnecessary.   
      
   Japan pursues the hunts using a loophole in the 1986 moratorium on   
   commercial whaling which allows the animals to be killed for "lethal   
   research", and often accuses Western critics of insensitivity towards   
   its culture.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)