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Sea Shepherd Gets a New Multi-Million Dollar Speedboat

The radical animal rights group Sea Shepherd has unveiled a new speedboat, which they will be taking into action against Japan’s whaling fleet:

The fast interceptor vessel, which is registered in Fremantle and cost $4 million, is called Gojira.

It is the first Sea Shepherd vessel to be registered in Australia.

Director Jeff Hansen says Gojira is the fastest and strongest Sea Shepherd vessel ever built.

“This vessel can outrun any Japanese vessel which means that we will have the element of surprise,” he said.

“We can find the factory ship and the factory ship is the one we’re after. If we can find the factory ship we can shut down whaling.”

The name “Gojira” is Japanese name for “Godzilla.” It looks like they’ve painted a Godzilla-like character on the side of their ship. The owners of the Godzilla films are known for taking legal action against anybody who uses something resembling the name or image of their character. Sea Shepherd should probably expect some letters from Toho’s fearsome lawyers.

As many of you will remember, Sea Shepherd’s last highly-maneuverable speedboat, the Ady Gil, was totaled in January after colliding with a Japanese ship. Sea Shepherd had repeatedly using the speedboat to circle around Japanese whaling ships at dangerously close distances, and one day they finally screwed up and got hit. It was abandoned and allegedly left to leak oil into the sea. According to Pete Bethune, Sea Shepherd later scuttled the ship and lied about how it had “sank” while being towed to port.

With fans who are willing to reward recklessness and dishonesty with millions of dollars in new donations, Sea Shepherd has a very profitable future ahead of it.

[hat tip to kobzster]

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33 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - December 1, 2010 at 9:47 am

Categories: Anti-Japan Tags:

http://jeanrob.blogspot.com/ JeanRob

It’s a shame that such a boat will be given to, and used by, morons.

Gojira? Really? Did they honestly think nobody would sue them?

http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

No, they expect to be sued – more publicity, more donations.

http://jeanrob.blogspot.com/ JeanRob

I should have thought twice before posting > <

fh

“It’s for a good cause, we’re helping make the world better, so it doesn’t matter if we break some copyright laws.”

… is probably along the lines of what they thought or would say.

Dev

So thats where all the money they raised is spent.

$10 says this boat doesn’t survive the next season of whaling. How? Lets be exotic about the demise: Since they’ll be using it to not only find and intercept the factory ship, they’ll also be blocking the towing rig area used to haul the whales up the ship. Best guess is that a whales carcass fouls up their engines a/or damages their ship when it either hits it by accident or the Gojira stupidly rams the whales carcass.

http://jeanrob.blogspot.com/ JeanRob

“So thats where all the money they raised is spent.”

According to Paul Watson, it goes even further:
“We now have three ships, an upgraded helicopter, eighty crew, new equipment”

“$10 says this boat doesn’t survive the next season of whaling.”

Still according to Paul Watson:
“I believe we will be more effective this year than last year, and last year was a very effective year.”

But I don’t see them ramming another high end ship just “for the fun of it”. 2 in a year would be too much and suspicions would rise even in the ranks of the fanatics. it might sank, but not this time.

http://www.ecorazzi.com/2010/10/24/sea-shepherds-new-interceptor-vessel-revealed/

Dev

I’ll counterpoint by saying that since the main goal of this ship is to find the factory ship and try to prevent the factory ship from towing in any whale carcass by getting in the way, I think my theory is gonna stick. The whale carcass is gonna be the demise of the new ship, one way or another.

http://tepido.org/ LB

MMMMMM…. Whale carcass…. *drool*

nagoriyuki

What does Gojira eat to live? Whales?
Do SS think she is vegetarian?
Rob A

I’m very happy about this. The new boat should be a little better-suited than the Ady Gil.

A lovely BS video there about the collision, to top things all off.

The ‘Proof Of Acceleration’ which they emphasize so much is actually wake caused by the Ady Gil being DRAGGED ALONG by the Shonan Maru #2.

The wake doesn’t start until after the boats collide. The Ady Gil did not accelerate. It is stopped, and the crew was ON THE TOP OF THE BOAT – not inside, restarting it. It should also be noted that they were OUT OF GAS – at least for the most part. They were powered down completely, waiting to get refueled.

Of course, you won’t notice the timing or position of the crew – because they draw a BIG RED CIRCLE on the other side of the screen. Propaganda and misdirection at its finest.

This has nothing to do with the Sea Shepherds cause and what they’re doing, but in this case it shouldn’t even be in question whose fault it was. It is clearly that of the Shonan Maru #2

Rich

Totally agree, that video is BS.

Hopefully Sea Shepard shuts down the whale fleet completely.

Vox24

“Director Jeff Hansen says Gojira is the fastest and strongest Sea Shepherd vessel ever built.”

er.. that implies that SS built it. They didn’t. It was formerly registered as the Ocean 7 Adventurer, owned by a South African charter.

My suspicion is that like the Earthrace, the donation of the boat to SS is a tax write off, and they can later collect the insurance when this one gets written off.

After all, there’s not exactly a high demand for ocean-going speedboats these days. They’re bastards to maintain, and the overhead is too high to make them profitable even for the few people that would want to charter one.

Rob A

Prior to being the Ocean 7 Adventurer it was the Cable & Wireless Adventurer for a British trans-Atlantic telecommunications corp.

http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/explorers_history/Cable__Wireless_Adventurer.jpg

Vox24

16,000 litre tank, 3500 nm range… that’s 6482km…

0.96 MPG.

Zero point nine six miles per gallon. Put another way, 245.02 L/100km

And that’s if they feather the throttle to get their full range. I guess the carbon footprint is out of vogue this year…

http://jeanrob.blogspot.com/ JeanRob

“The vessel will depart with the Bob Barker and the Steve Irwin with a completely refitted new engine and two propellers.”
Maybe it will now be fueled by human stupidity, thus giving the Sea Sheperds an unlimited range ^

Hage Oyaji

It´s a cool boat. Looking forward seeing it get destroyed by the Japanese vessel once again.

http://jeanrob.blogspot.com/ JeanRob

Preferably in 1080p quality this time.

jcpb

Not likely. They’ll scuttle the vessel and then claim the Japanese did it.

yom

I wonder if they intentionally went with a Godzilla design that looks more like the Hollywood version than the original Japanese version, just to piss the Japanese off even more?
Robin

Why don’t they concentrate their efforts on saving Australian Aborigines rather than whales?

http://jeanrob.blogspot.com/ JeanRob

Because nobody cares about humans?
Dev

“So I heard about the stolen generation.”

“I no nuthin about no stolen generator!!”

*surprise_face.jpg*

Tyr

Looks cool, like something from James Bond.
Good luck to them.
Level3

I’d like to see what unnecessary luxuries are INSIDE the boat.
dadasadsads

Those sea terrorists should be shot.
V

Using the name “Gojira” without permissions isn’t technically a copyright violation, it’s a trademark violation. Copyright covers creative works like books, photographs, films and software, while trademarks cover names, logos etc. Even a characteristic sound can be trademarked.
Vonskippy

Let me know when they get a boat that’s armed – until then, who cares.
Concerned Filipino

How evil of them to attempt to prevent the Japanese from hunting endangered whale species…

http://tepido.org LB

You need to find an actual, existing issue to be “concerned” about.

Concerned Filipino

I’m always amazed at how you can consistetnly manage to say nothing at all in your comments…

Concerned Filipino

Oh wow, a typo.
http://tepido.org LB

And I am always amazed how you can consistently manage to say nothing but bullshit in yours.

http://tepido.org LB

“You may fire when ready, Gridley…”

Sea Shepherd Gets a New Multi-Million Dollar Speedboat

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