ANTARCTICA — A space-age powerboat sent to harass Japanese whalers was rammed and sliced in two in its very first clash on Wednesday, activists said, dramatically escalating hostilities in icy Antarctic seas. The futuristic Ady Gil trimaran, which holds the round-the-world record and was enlisted by Sea Shepherd activists for this whaling season, received "catastrophic damage" and was sinking, they said. All six crew, who earlier hurled stink bombs at the whalers to disrupt their annual hunt, were rescued unharmed by Sea Shepherd's Bob Barker ship. Activists described the attack as unprovoked and said it was captured on film. "The Shonan Maru No. 2 suddenly started up and deliberately rammed the Ady Gil ripping eight feet (2.4 metres) of the bow of the vessel completely off," a Sea Shepherd statement said. "The Ady Gil is believed to be sinking and chances of salvage are very grim," it added. The whalers accused the Ady Gil's five New Zealand and one Dutch crew of trying to tangle the Nisshin Maru's rudder and propeller with rope, and aiming a "green laser device" at its sailors, as well as launching stink bombs. "The Sea Shepherd extremism is becoming more violent... Their actions are nothing but felonious behaviour," Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research said in a statement. Paul Watson, captain of Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin ship and a spokesman for the group, said the annual pursuit had now turned into a "real whale war". "The Japanese whalers have now escalated this conflict very violently," he said. "If they think that our remaining two ships will retreat from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the face of their extremism, they will be mistaken. "We now have a real whale war on our hands now and we have no intention of retreating." The wave-piercing, carbon-and-kevlar Ady Gil, bankrolled by a Hollywood businessman, was one of the world's most celebrated vessels. In 2008, under its former name Earthrace, it smashed the world circumnavigation record by two weeks. "This is a substantial loss for our organisation," said Watson. "The Ady Gil, the former Earthrace, represents a loss of almost two million dollars. "However the loss of a single whale is of more importance to us and we will not lose the Ady Gil in vain. This blow simply strengthens our resolve, it does not weaken our spirit." Watson also accused the Japanese of using surveillance flights to pinpoint the anti-whaling vessels and send pursuing ships, setting back their campaign by weeks. | 
