The right price

Television icon Bob Barker donated $5 million to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society recently, allowing the organization to quietly purchase and retrofit a former whaling ship in Africa.

The 12,000-ton Norwegian-built Antarctic harpoon vessel, dubbed “the Bob Barker,” departed from Mauritius, an island nation off the coast of Africa, in mid-December to join up with the conservation society’s Steve Irwin and Ady Gil ships in the Southern Ocean.

The Bob Barker caught up with the Japanese whaling fleet in early January in the area of Commonwealth Bay off the Adelie Coast near Antarctica. It was the first time Sea Shepherd has had three ships for its anti-whaling campaign, but the record didn’t stand for long.

Japanese whaling vessel Shonan Maru No. 2 rammed the Ady Gil, which sank in the frigid waters a few days later. Crew members were able to remove possible environmental hazards prior to its sinking.