Jan 6, 2010 10:13am
Sea Shepherd’s fancy new boat got sunk. Bad strategy yielding bad results.
The idea is to prevent whaling. How would you do that? Easy: neutralize the whaling boats.
You’ll see from the video that Sea Shepherd tries to block the whaling vessel. Direct physical confrontation. Dumb idea. The little boat is no match for the big whaling vessel. The Japanese also have fast harpoon boats and security vessels, outnumbering Sea Shepherd. (Plus use satellite tracking to find the protesters. Those Japanese are serious about killing them whales.)
To be effective, Sea Shepherd needs to adopt guerrilla tactics. They also need to stop the whaling without damaging property or hurting people. Easy. Here’s my idea:
Attach water-filled balloons to the boats. Then the boats can’t move (easily).
Attach the balloons as far below the water line as possible. Once attached, the balloons inflate, acting as drags on the boat. The balloons need to be water filled, so they’re not buoyant, preventing easy removal. The goal is to force the boat to return to dock.
Deploy the balloons with a mix of strategies. Torpedoes for hit and run attacks. (Don’t just stand there and let them use their water cannons on you. Duh.) Mine fields if you can predict where the whalers are going. Robot submarines if you want to attach the balloons while the whaler is still in dock. (Trigger the balloons once the boat is at sea.)
Balloons could be developed and manufactured for far less than those stupid trimarans. Make it a design competition and get free help from bored engineering students.