Confirmed: Earthrace Superboat Joining Sea Shepherd Fleet

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by Michael dEstries June 25, 2009
Categories: Animals, Causes
Tags: .

When we first heard the rumors that Sea Shepherd might acquire add the sleek, biodiesel-fueled powerboat called Earthrace to their efforts — we wanted to believe. But seriously, would it be possible? Could an anti-whaling organization land something out of a James Bond movie to further their cause?

Yes.

Outside the International Whaling Commission meeting in Portugal, Sea Shepherd announced plans for their sixth campaign against Japanese commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary – Operation Waltzing Matilda. They also revealed the incredible news that the Earthrace will be joining the SS Steve Irwin in this new operation. And yes, it will change from its current silver to the Sea Shepherd’s striking black.

“It looks like a spaceship. It can do 40 knots and dive under waves completely. We’ll be using it to intercept and block harpoons,” said Captain Paul Watson, who earlier this week was arrested (And later released) after entering Portugal. He added that the organization was outfitting the vessel with half a tonne of Kevlar to toughen it against the ice. “It has the endurance to go half way round the world on a tank of fuel,” he said. “They won’t get away from me.”

The Steve Irwin will also be receiving some love in the form of $500,000 in repairs and additions. Its buckled hull plates have been repaired (after clashes earlier this year with the Japanese), and  a powerful water cannon has been added on the bow to match the whalers’.

Finally, the organization confirmed that the Animal Planet television crew will be back to film season three of the popular show Whale Wars. “We are taking the most powerful anti-whaling weapon at our disposal: a film crew,” said Laurens de Groot, a Sea Shepherd Netherlands Director. “The cameras are more powerful than cannons and our ammunition is the naked truth about illegal whaling. We intend to keep the focus on Japanese crimes and we intend to sink the Japanese whaling fleet – economically.”

via IndyBay and The Brisbane Times

About Michael dEstries

Michael has been blogging since 2005 on issues such as sustainability, renewable energy, philanthropy, and healthy living. He regularly contributes to a slew of publications, as well as consulting with companies looking to make an impact using the web and social media. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his family on an apple farm.

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Newer Comments →
  • taylor

    i hope it’s still around when i join the sea shepherds.

  • http://www.veganjapan.net herwin

    i love to see it painted black witha skull. i think the whalers will be completely freaked out..

  • http://youtube.com/veganseals RAINRA

    F N !!! YEAH!!!!! AMAZING ! ! WOW … I AM JUST ECSTATIC ABOUT ALL THIS GOOD NEWS… NOW WERE ARE TALKING!!!! NOW TECHNOLOGY ON ANIMALS SIDE!!!!

  • steph

    HELL EFFIN’ YEAH BABY!@!@!

    Can’t wait, so glad that SS is getting so much support!

  • Patrick

    When I first heard they might be getting the boat, I thought “Naw, nice idea but it’ll never happen.” Glad to see my pessimism proven wrong. CAN’T WAIT FOR SEASON 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Sini

    WOO HOO!!! This will kick ass for the whales. Love it.

  • http://RawfoodsRetreat.com Erin Raw Foods

    Great news thanks Michael! :)

    Cannot wait

    E

  • Amanda

    Fan bloody tastic. What a coup. I hope you put a serious dent in the Japanese whale kill and that they go home with no dead whales on board their ship at the end of the season. wonderful, if not for passion like you guys have what would this world be?

    Oh and the Earthrace is pretty cute too!!

  • Whoever…

    HA, HA, HA, HA *evil laugh”…

    Whaling industry, you’re screwed! Your days are over!

    With this powerboat, there is no way whalers can get away. It will all be captured on video…

    This will definitely be the beginning of the end of whaling :]

    “We intend to keep the focus on Japanese crimes and we intend to sink the Japanese whaling fleet – economically.””

    I have a feeling they will be able to actually pull it off this time!

    :)

  • Old_Salt

    The Sea Shepherds, especially the first mate, Peter Brown, have shown their level of seamanship to be extremely poor. From navigation mistakes that put them into deadly ice, to botched dinghy launching attempts that put poorly-trained crew at risk of death, they have shown that they don’t have the skills to sail the Southern Ocean.

    They will sink this new ship.

  • Pandonodrim

    Re: Old_Salt

    Remember, “Whale Wars” is a reality television show – they will edit the show to be as “dramatic” as possible.

    The facts speak for themselves: in over 30 years of operations SSCS has never had a single serious injury or death in any of their operations.

    Every year they’ve gone down since 2006 they have found the Japanese and saved whales. The last three years they kept the Japanese from achieving at least half their quota – that’s quite successful.

    In the past 4 years in the Southern Ocean, the Japanese have had their mother ship catch fire and have to be towed/escorted back to Japan. They had 1 crew member die in that fire, and they lost another crew member the next year to who knows what? (Note that none of these incidents were, in any way, the fault of Sea Shepherd.)

    To recap:
    SSCS – 30 years, 0 deaths
    Japanese – 4 years, 2 deaths

    Who doesn’t “have the skills to sail the Southern Ocean” again? Take your hate and fear somewhere else.

  • http://www.earthrace.net Bev Bailey

    Just a quick clarification. Sea Shepherd haven’t ‘acquired’ Earthrace. The world record holding, biofuel boat is still owned by skipper, Pete Bethune.

    Following the successful breaking of the round the world speed record last year, the boat has been touring around Australia and its home country of New Zealand.

    Now, however, Pete has decided to continue using Earthrace to benefit the environment and the planet – only this time instead of raising awareness of renewable fuels, he will be raising hell against the Japanese whaling fleet.

    Glad that’s all sorted out then!

  • http://www.ecorazzi.com Michael Andre d’Estries

    Thanks, Bev — I’ve updated the post to reflect that a bit better.

  • http://uvuaac.blogspot.com/ Jorgen

    AWESOME!

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  • http://williammarkclarke.com William Mark Clarke

    I would like to propose that the new ship of the fleet be called the Jacques-Yves Cousteau. This would be a great tribute to a man we all know who taught the world about her oceans.

  • Daniel Everett

    That sounds like a great name, however, lets also consider christening it the “S.S. We’re gonna F you up”…..900+ whale quota, & 100 million sharks killed every year, are you kidding me what the F*$k is wrong with these people?!? So many people don’t even give a crap, or don’t even realize, that’s tragic. Let’s all pull together and do our best before all thats left is Jellyfish to dominate the oceans. You think i’m kidding……

  • http://dreamwrecks.com dominique serafini

    so now the technologie is on the sideof the whales after be used to destroy human and nature thats a good sign ,i spent 20 years with the cousreau team diving sailing and writing books for the kids finally someting start to change ,,,and cousteau didnt work for nothing thank you paul watson

  • http://www.thebluewaterlodge.co.nz Rod Burgoyne

    Great news about Earthrace joining up and the cheques in the mail Paul , the Japanese have been raping our oceans for years and it has to stop.

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  • Steven Adams

    Nice I can not wait for next season, all the need now is a way to track the whale fleet. I say shoot some type of tracking device at the whale ship before it leaves for the south seas that way they know where it is. Or have some one follow it from japan.

  • Mike

    The Sea Shepherd fleet seems more of a threat to themselves then to any whaling operations.

  • Corey

    I cant wait to read about how this ship sinks next season! Should be a good read!

  • mike sheld

    the sooner the sea shapard crew is arrested for there crimes on the high sea the better for us all who are trying to end whaleing peaceably.and i will remind the owners of the new ship those harpons are armed with explosive heads kevlar will not protect you from that and its cold inn the water around the antartic sea

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  • RRR

    Gahh.. the SS aren’t going to stop till they kill someone.

  • Kathy

    Finally!!! Good job, I hope that you guys can now stop the whaling fleet. We need to do all we can to stop the Japanese from killing.

  • patti

    I’ve enjoyed watching the past two seasons. Ques. … why not have more retired professional navy crew? They would still be working for free, yet
    all might work a bit smoother? Not in charge, just crew w/experience.
    Wish crew the best.

  • derek

    Regards comments by Mike. Mike are you Japanese because the comments you make seem stupid in light of reading the other blogs. The Japs kill 2 crew members, multiple work place injuries (three crew had to be taken away last year to get medical attention), several fires onboard their ships. Plus one Jap boat damaged its prop. The people responsible for all the poor seamanship were the Japs themselve. Sounds like you are so angry that you want the Japs to hurt the sea shepherd crew. Number Japs hurt by sea shepherd zero, number of sea shepherd crew hurt zero. Were do you get off Mike?

  • http://www.veganjapan.net herwin

    derek, on japanese forums that are discussing animal rights topics like animal testing, i have seen many of these same vicous hateful comments. you might well be right that “Mike” is japanese.

  • Rich Schwerdtfeger

    Paul, This is my first season watching whale wars. Thank you to all that you do to protect the whales. I only hope that some day my grandchildren will see them too.

  • http://www.mukhtar.tk Mukhtar

    Muahahahahaha.

    Nishin Maru, your days are NUMBERED, MUAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH

  • http://www.mukhtar.tk Mukhtar

    Ok, i was reading about the MV Steve Erwin. Did you know it had a 40mm cannon when it was made. That would be useful, wonder why paul took it off lol

  • Dave

    “Nishin Maru, your days are NUMBERED, MUAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH”

    Kind of doubt it. This’ll be like throwing tin cans at a Panzer.

    Can’t wait for the next season of Fail Wars…

  • http://yahoo matt hagel

    i have been on this boat 2 years ago it docked at hilton head il. sc this is one cool boat i wish them luck byby matt in sc usa

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  • Djole

    You know, each year Japs are getting more and more prepared. By that escalation of conflict really comes that high to justify series title.
    Maybe next season we will finaly see some wreckage on bottom of ocean. Not that i justify murder, but just wondering which law protecting animals? Human law? Did anyone asked animals? Bah, lets earn some huge money, screw the whales and rest of animals. You know that line from Matrix is completely right. Human is acting like a virus. Only question remains is when everything is exploited from Earth, where humanity will migrate?
    So i really hope see Nishin Maru on the bottom of the ocean one way or another.
    Sorry human rights committees, call me whatever you like, but in this situation id rather see whales living than Nishin Maru crew…

  • Richard Simon

    I say boycott ALL Japanese goods until they stop whaling.
    An economic boycott, one that really hurts them, will get them to stop.
    After all, what is more important to them then almighty money.

  • Fuzzy

    Well, if the “Earthrace” superboat runs out of gas, they can always call over to the Japanese whalers and ask them for a cup of whale blubber to fill their tank with “bio-fuel.”

    LOL, a clown boat with a clown crew!

  • marcdups

    Fuzzy, you are an azz, go get some fries at MC donalds and help the cause, MORON

  • Stuart

    I doubt the earthrace boat will run out of gas, I think it has a range of about 8000 miles on a tank of gas, it will outlast the other boats, and they might be adding more capacity on the refit it is undergoing right now.

  • Eric

    Did someone in 2009 actually have the call to write “the Japs” in the comments at ecorazzi?

    Thanks for reminding me what little hope our species has…

  • http://www.dropdeadglam.com Stephany

    I’m excited that the Sea Shepherds are upping their game! I think they do so much good, I support them totally.

  • Rachel

    Oh! Shepherds of the seas unite

    With Earthrace and its might

    Go,give those Japs a hell of a fright

    And save those whales into the night
    Like me at sixty I’ll put up a fight
    By doing something I know is right.
    Proud to be Kiwi

  • frank detank

    i think the steve erwins needs big elastic sling shots to get the acid to the deck of enemy ships.

  • http://www.ecorazzi.com Mary E.

    Thank you Paul Watson for your lifelong
    efforts to stop the inhumane whaling by
    the Japanese fleet. I pray for you and
    your crew every night. Revelations 7:3 says, “Hurt Not the Earth Neither Sea Nor
    Trees”. I truly believe you are doing God’s work on the high seas. If God be on your side, who can defeat you? As to Mike Sheld’s comments, I say you should go back to school, read the Bible and learn how to spell. You spelled Shepherd incorrectly, you ignorant fool!
    Go Earthrace Superboat, and kick some ass on the high seas!!! YES, YES, my prayers have been answered.

  • http://www.ecorazzi.com Mary E.

    I anxiously await the next season of Sea Shepherd’s. Last night’s (Aug. 14) episode of Sea Shepherd upset me so much I could not sleep. Watching that beautiful creature get harpooned and then shot several times while it bleed to death in the water made my stomach turn and angered me. There are plenty of fish in the sea to eat so why do you continue to kill mammals?

  • Anonymous

    I find it ironic that the Sea Shepherds protest the killing of whales, yet they acquire a ship for their fleet that runs on a biodiesel fuel that uses animal fat.

  • eugenia

    I fully support the Sea Shepherd organization. You must always react in a language your foe understands. I would like to see the “research” papers the murders of so many whales have produced. What kind of “research” is being done? Why are the individuals who fight for our very survival always demonized??

  • George Simmons

    I hope the Japanese bring an old ww2 battleship and put both of the sea shepherds boats on the bottom of the ocean.

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