Will whaling end in 2010?

30 November 2009 - 08:53
By Olivia 'OJ' Symcox

On Friday I left you with a news snippet about Sea Shepherd and the new Ady Gil and here is the full scoop.

International environmental organization Sea Shepherd has embarked on another mission to prevent whaling in the Antarctic Ocean.

Only this time they’ll have a distinct speed advantage in the form of the Ady Gil: a radically designed, lightning-fast trimaran that holds the world record for global circumnavigation.

The Ady Gil, named after its benefactor, was formerly known as Earthrace and can tackle waves of up to 15m and submarine up to 7m underwater! It uses biodiesel and half a tonne of Kevlar has been added to the vessel to toughen it against the ice.

The vessel is capable of speeds of up to 50 knots, a significant advantage when compared to the Sea Shepherd vessel’s capabilities of only around 17 knots.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is best known for their confrontational tactics to prevent Japanese whaling in the Antarctic ocean.

The Ady Gil will join Sea Shepherd’s flagship Steve Irwin in December to begin the campaign as the Japanese whaling fleet left Japan recently for the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Their intention is to slaughter 925 protected Antarctic Minke whales and 50 endangered Fin whales inside the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

The Japanese fleet and the Sea Shepherd fleet should arrive off the coast of Antarctica at around the same time.

Sea Shepherd will once again be taking a film crew to the Southern Oceans, this time to film the 3rd season of Animal Planet’s hit show Whale Wars.

The last three Sea Shepherd Antarctic Whale Defence campaigns were successful in cutting whale kill quotas in half.

Watch the video of Ady Gil and see the pic – all I can say is that it is ridiculously impressive the video ends with “whaling will stop in 2010” and after watching it one is left with no doubt that it will!

Meanwhile, Howie from ESA Bass had a very good trip recently to Cloud 9 in Craigieburn where he caught about 35 fish in 3 days - the biggest was only about 1kg. Most of the fish were caught on soft plastic baits on a mojo rig, and there was a healthy mix of largemouth and smallmouth bass.

They had awesome weather and raved about the accommodation because they were about 100m’s from the water, and had 360' views of mountain and dam. Cloud 9 is halfway between Mooi River and Greytown. For more info - 082 451 0915.

Stay tuned tomorrow because I have some more exciting news for bass anglers from John Easton and Lowrance...

* If you want to enter the Charity Classic tournament, download the entry form below.