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)