MILITANT anti-whaling campaigners said yesterday they had launched a new Godzilla speedboat to chase Japanese harpooners hunting the giant mammals in Antarctic waters.

The skipper of a Sea Shepherd protest boat damaged in a collision with a Japanese whaling ship said today that the head of the conservation group ordered him to let the vessel sink because it would help win public support.

A CONSERVATION group’s boat had its bow sheared off and was taking on water yesterday after it was struck by a Japanese whaling ship in the freezing waters of Antarctica, the group said.

A conservation group’s boat was sinking today after its bow sheared off in a collision with a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctica.

Japanese whalers and militant conservationists clashed in the Antarctic Ocean over two days with weapons including water cannon, blinding lasers and bottles of rancid acid.