MV Robert Hunter
MY Steve Irwin moored in West India Docks, London, 2011
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | 1975–2006: FPV Westra |
| Owner: | 1975–1999: Secretary of State for Scotland |
| Operator: | 1975–2003: Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency |
| Ordered: | 1974 |
| Builder: | Hall, Russell & Company, Aberdeen, Scotland |
| Yard number: | 962 |
| Christened: | FPV Westra |
| In service: | 1975–2003 |
| Out of service: | 2003–2006 (laid up for disposal) |
| Homeport: | Leith, Scotland |
 Netherlands
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| Name: |
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| Namesake: | Steve Irwin |
| Owner: | Sea Shepherd Conservation Society |
| Operator: | since 2006: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society |
| Port of registry: | Rotterdam, Netherlands |
| In service: | 2006 |
| Homeport: | Hobart, Tasmania |
| Identification: |
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| Status: | in active service |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Island class patrol vessel |
| Tonnage: | 885 grt |
| Length: | 59.43 m (195 ft) |
| Beam: | 10.97 m (36 ft) |
| Draught: | 4.26 m (14 ft) |
| Ice class: | None |
| Propulsion: | 2 x British Polar Engines 12-cylinder 2,100 bhp (1,600 kW), driving a variable-pitch propeller |
| Speed: | 12.5–16.5 knots (23–31 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 200 tons fuel |
| Crew: | 43 |
| Aircraft carried: | 1 MD Helicopters MD 500 can be embarked |
| Notes: | |
The MY Steve Irwin is the 59-meter (194 ft) flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and is used in their direct action campaigns against whaling and against illegal fisheries activities. The vessel was built in 1975 and formerly served as a Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency conservation enforcement patrol boat, the FPV Westra, for 28 years.
Sea Shepherd had originally christened the vessel the MV Robert Hunter after Canadian Robert Hunter, co-founder of Greenpeace, but it was renamed in honor of The Crocodile Hunter star Steve Irwin on December 5, 2007. Irwin had considered joining the vessel on a voyage to Antarctica shortly before his death, and the renaming was endorsed by his widow Terri.
The ship and its crew, and their efforts for conservation, are the subject of the Animal Planet show Whale Wars.
In January 2007, the ship was struck from the British Ship Register after a Japanese request. The ship has been registered in the Netherlands as of October 8, 2007.
The FPV Westra was laid up ready for disposal in 2003 when Sea Shepherd purchased her in November 2006 and renamed her Robert Hunter. The vessel was purchased because in previous campaigns the RV Farley Mowat could not keep up with the faster Nisshin Maru.
In February 2007, Robert Hunter joined Farley Mowat in order to prevent the Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru from hunting in an action Sea Shepherd called Operation Leviathan. Sea Shepherd members threw bottles of foul-smelling butyric acid onto the decks of the Nisshin Maru. The Japanese say three members of the whaler were injured in the attack. Robert Hunter and Farley Mowat obstructed the path of the whaling ship, and Robert Hunter and Kaiko Maru collided with each other. One Japanese official accused the Sea Shepherd organisation of behaving "like pirates". Robert Hunter sustained a 3-foot gash in the hull above the waterline at the stern of the ship. Three days after the collision, an unrelated fire broke out in the engine room of the whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru and killed one crew member.
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Wikipedia