Activist boat 'sliced in two' by Japanese whalers

[Solauren]

Activist boat 'sliced in two' by Japanese whalers

SYDNEY (AFP) - 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 speed record for a powered vessel and was enlisted by activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society 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 collision as unprovoked but Japan lashed out at the the group, accusing them of "extremely dangerous" behaviour.

"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.

But the Japanese Fisheries Agency said the Ady Gil came abnormally close to the Shonan Maru No.2 and suddenly slowed down while crossing in front of it. "These acts of sabotage that threaten our country's whaling ships and crew were extremely dangerous," it said in a statement. "It is totally unforgivable." Japan slams protestors

Videos released by both the Japanese and the activists show the sleek, black powerboat and the Shonan Maru No.2 colliding as the whaling ship targets it with water cannons.

There was no major damage to the Japanese ship and no Japanese crew members were injured in the collision, the fisheries agency said.

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.

Sea Shepherd activists have harassed the Japanese fleet over the past six hunting seasons and claim to have saved the lives of hundreds of whales.

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 and we have no intention of retreating."

Australia said it had no plans to send a vessel to monitor the escalating situation some 1,300 nautical miles south of the Tasmanian capital Hobart as it urged both sides to show restraint.

"It's critical for safety at sea to be the highest priority and for absolute and utmost restraint to be exercised by all parties in this very remote and inhospitable region," Environment Minister Peter Garrett said.

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.

The activists, who set off from Australia a month ago, finally caught up with the whalers before dawn near Antarctica's Commonwealth Bay.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a small but militant environmentalist group which specialises in "direct action" to halt marine environmental destruction.

"When people call us pirates I don't really have a problem with that -- we're pirates of compassion in pursuit of pirates of profit," Watson told AFP in 2007.

An international moratorium on commercial whaling was imposed in 1986 but Japan kills hundreds each year using a loophole that allows "lethal research" on the animals.

Japan makes no secret of the fact that whale meat ends up on dinner tables, and accuses Western nations of not respecting its culture.

This could get very interesting.

Quite frankly, if the Sea Shepards are using the aggressive and dangerous tactics they have been accused of, it comes as no surprise that Japan is now fighting back.

However, a private group saying they have a 'War' now, is beyond stupid.

[Darth Wong]

The Japanese can go fuck themselves. They have no right to accuse anyone of "felonious" behaviour when they're flouting the law all the time.

"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.

Oh yeah, "Institute of Cetacean Research". Do you know how Japan gets around international whaling laws? The laws contain an exemption for "scientific research", so the Japanese simply classify their entire whaling catch as research, even though the meat ends up in grocery stores in Tokyo. What a bunch of dishonest weasely little shits. Fucking Japanese whalers can suck my ass. I wouldn't shed a tear for them if the next Sea Shepherd boat grew a pair of testicles and opened fire on them.

[Themightytom]

Wait how did a speedboat with such a reputation et rammed by a whaler?
I really hope they weren't trying to play chicken.

[Darth Wong]

Wait how did a speedboat with such a reputation et rammed by a whaler?
I really hope they weren't trying to play chicken.

Two possibilities:

1) They were skipping back and forth in front of the whaler, trying to harass it, and they misjudged the distance due to incompetence.
2) The whaler got fed up with them and accelerated, thus causing them to misjudge the distance because the relative velocity was changing.

Either way, I agree that the protest ship was asking for trouble. I just get pissed off at the rampant dishonesty of the Japanese whalers, and the blatant contempt for conservationism shown by Japan in general. It's not just whales; the bluefin tuna is in danger of imminent extinction, again thanks largely to Japan.

[Darth Yan]

I'm reminded of the south park episode where Stan takes over whale wars, and takes a more aggressive approach to stopping them (including unveiling a giant godzilla statue, and using flare guns to blow up fuel barrels). In the end they persuade the japanese to start slaughtering chickens and cows.

[Phantasee]

National Post comment
Good riddance, Ady Gil
The insufferable people at the Sea Shepherd society were pretty full of themselves --- even more full of themselves than usual -- when they got their new ultra-high-tech batboat, the Ady Gil, which they planned to use to harass Japanese whalers.

Now it's toast. Score one for the whalers.

The boat, an "alternative-fuel powered, wave-piercing trimaran" built to set speed records, looked like something out of a James Bond movie. It planned to use "a laser called a photonic disruptor to try to blind the crew of a Japanese security ship" so it could be sabotaged. Photonic disruptors are "a hand-held laser that will temporarily overwhelm a threat's visual senses without causing permanent eye damage", according to the makers.

Oops. Guess they didn't blind enough whalers. Nor did they get out of the way. A Japanese boat somehow managed to whack it, (according to the Sea Shepherders, who I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them), tearing off the front half. Bye-bye Ady Gil.

The good news is that someone filmed the whole thing, so we can all enjoy it again and again. Nothing against whales, but self-important egomaniacs who treat the law with contempt in pursuit of their own private agenda are not the sort of people you want championing your cause, no matter how worthy. If it's OK for the Sea Shepherds to break the law and endanger lives in pursuit of any cause they consider important enough, it's OK for them to break the law in pursuit of any cause at all. If whaling is to be halted, it should be done via legal international means, not via crazed zealots with bat-boats and "photonic disruptors."

National Post

---

For some reason the commenter seems like a bigger douche than the Sea Shepherd morons and the whalers put together.

However, there's a video on Youtube that you can watch at the link that shows the collision. Appears to be recorded by someone on the whaler.
EDIT: Actually, let me just drop it in here:

[loomer]

As I recall the speedboat had actually slowed to a halt alongside/in front of the whaler (possibly to yell at them) when the Japanese kicked the engines on and aimed for the crew section - the speedboat only had time, apparently, to move far enough to save the crew and just ruin the ship.

So it's probably a mix of both stories, really.

[Darth Wong]

For some reason the commenter seems like a bigger douche than the Sea Shepherd morons and the whalers put together.

Of course he's a douche; you just quoted the Nazi Post. The right-wing rag which once ran a series of ads bragging "It's not the story, it's how you tell it". They virtually admitted that it's all about distorting and propagandizing the news.

[Artemas]

Of course he's a douche; you just quoted the Nazi Post. The right-wing rag which once ran a series of ads bragging "It's not the story, it's how you tell it". They virtually admitted that it's all about distorting and propagandizing the news.

They really said that? Holy fuck.

Anyway, I agree with Wong about the Japanese and their state-sponsored (and socially supported) illegal whaling. Even so, this is the Sea Shepperds' comeuppance after all the Japanese whalers they've rammed.

I don't think that the SSCS is going to succeed in preventing whaling by the japanese via ramming their ships. Unlike the case of Iceland, Norway and Spain, who actually are not that keen on whaling, the Japanese need to have their mindset changed. No matter how cost ineffective it is, people will still pay out the nose for a delicacy.

[Darth Wong]

Of course he's a douche; you just quoted the Nazi Post. The right-wing rag which once ran a series of ads bragging "It's not the story, it's how you tell it". They virtually admitted that it's all about distorting and propagandizing the news.

They really said that? Holy fuck.

Yes. They ran a series of ads on CFRB Talk Radio here in Toronto many years ago with that exact slogan: "It's not the story, it's how you tell it".

Anyway, I agree with Wong about the Japanese and their state-sponsored (and socially supported) illegal whaling. Even so, this is the Sea Shepperds' comeuppance after all the Japanese whalers they've rammed.

I don't think that the SSCS is going to succeed in preventing whaling by the japanese via ramming their ships. Unlike the case of Iceland, Norway and Spain, who actually are not that keen on whaling, the Japanese need to have their mindset changed. No matter how cost ineffective it is, people will still pay out the nose for a delicacy.

Yes, it's a lot like drugs. Going after the dealers will never solve the problem, because as long as there are customers, somebody will give them what they want. They need to make the Japanese people feel embarrassed about their ridiculous behaviour, or pressure the Japanese government into restricting sales of the product.

[Knife]

I fell in love with Whale Wars last year, it is the reality TV show chronicling the Sea Shepard's. The Sea Shepard's do attempt high risk and insane maneuvers against the whalers, not that I'm particularly apt to defend the whalers, but the Sea Shepard's pretty much ask for this shit to happen to them. Last season of the show, the Japanese had apperently gotten tired of the last five years of the Sea Sheppard's interfering with them, and had pre-planned some aggressive maneuvers, and assigned some of their ships as literal escorts to block and chase after the Steve Erwin (Sea Shepard's ship). They had also installed netting to prevent the Sea Shepard's favorite tactic of throwing stink bombs on deck, and installed LRAD's as well as the typical water cannons.

Last season the Sea Shepard's were just not equipped and hadn't created many new tactics to keep up with them. They did bring prop fouler s, which it seems they attempted to do this year with their new boat, but last year they discovered that their ability to get their auxiliary craft in the water coupled with the slow speed of their main ship made it very difficult. It is interesting that they moved to fix that with a bigger, faster auxiliary boat; however, last season with all their failures to adapt, and no new viable way to harass the whalers, the Steve Erwin actually rammed a Japanese boat, so I'm not surprised the Japaneses are willing to ram them in return this year.

[Solauren]

Here's a question for everyone to consider;

If this were to end up in a court (either this incident, or the 'Whale Wars' in general), who if anyone could legally preside over it?

[Artemas]

I think they've actually painted "kill stamps" on the side of the hull of one of the ships to tally up the number of ships rammed. But as long as they continue to attempt that sort of violence I cannot support them. I think their best bet is to continue the Whale Wars thing, and get public awareness in North America up enough that people start pressuring their governments, who then put pressure on the Japanese.

Remember when the Sea Shepperds were crusing around harassing Canadian seal hunters, and their ship got impounded? People were pretty pissed at them then. I don't think their campaign is at all affecting the Japanese public in the way they are hoping.

Man, it must be pretty embarassing to lose such a fast boat on her maiden voyage. What were they thinking playing chicken?

EDIT FOR ABOVE POST: No one, really. The main reason both sides have gotten away with so much shit is because there is not really a body that holds jurisdiction over International waters. I mean, do you think an activist ramming their car into a banking baron is going to get off?

[Themightytom]

I think they've actually painted "kill stamps" on the side of the hull of one of the ships to tally up the number of ships rammed. But as long as they continue to attempt that sort of violence I cannot support them. I think their best bet is to continue the Whale Wars thing, and get public awareness in North America up enough that people start pressuring their governments, who then put pressure on the Japanese.

Remember when the Sea Shepperds were crusing around harassing Canadian seal hunters, and their ship got impounded? People were pretty pissed at them then. I don't think their campaign is at all affecting the Japanese public in the way they are hoping.

Man, it must be pretty embarassing to lose such a fast boat on her maiden voyage. What were they thinking playing chicken?

If you got that from my post I just watched the video, they weren't playing chicken just maneuvering foolishly. Their spaceship boat had its front third lopped off. The japeanese continued to signal "Fuck you" by nailing them with their water cannon.

How come the sea sheppards don't have water cannons? I feel like for the money they spent on Knightboat the Ady Gil They might have more effectiely bought a bigger boat with water cannons on it.

Ouf of curiosity would a Blimp have been rediculous? Unless the japanese are hardcore enough to shoot it down they can float arround irriating the shit out of them all they want.

[Davey]

Lesson learned: Don't take on a ship that's bigger than yours unless you have something that can sink it.

[Phantasee]

For some reason the commenter seems like a bigger douche than the Sea Shepherd morons and the whalers put together.

Of course he's a douche; you just quoted the Nazi Post. The right-wing rag which once ran a series of ads bragging "It's not the story, it's how you tell it". They virtually admitted that it's all about distorting and propagandizing the news.

We don't really read the National Post out here in Western Canada. Eastern paper pretending to speak for the whole country, and all that.

Is there a decent paper that we can consider to be a national paper in Canada?

[Knife]

How come the sea sheppards don't have water cannons? I feel like for the money they spent on Knightboat the Ady Gil They might have more effectiely bought a bigger boat with water cannons on it.

Ouf of curiosity would a Blimp have been rediculous? Unless the japanese are hardcore enough to shoot it down they can float arround irriating the shit out of them all they want.

Their basic tactics were to drive next to the ship and huck stink bombs onboard. It didn't take them long to figure out that the SS (POS) Steve Irwin's mighty 12 knots per hour couldn't keep up with the Japanese ships, so they had rubber CRRC style boats race up and throw the bombs. That put them in range of the water cannons, and danger since the rubber boats are much smaller. Last year, the Japanese just put up nets so the throwers couldn't get any stink bombs on deck which lead to the activists trying to use ropes and prop foulers. The shit just keeps escalating, but I agree, if I was them, I'd have skipped on the bat boat and spend money on a better mothership that can keep up with the enemy ships and perhaps go water gun V water gun with them.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Apparently most people in Japan don't even like eating whale meat, and the whole reason the industry is propped up by the government is to prevent a surge in unemployment. Which explains why whale meat was ending up in school lunches in Japan - the government was paying for them to get it and consumers weren't buying enough of it.

That's such an incredibly counter-intuitive "solution" to the problem, it reminds me of all the bailout money handed over to failing auto companies and banks here so recently - it did nothing but make the situation worse when things finally fell apart.

[Artemas]

If you got that from my post I just watched the video, they weren't playing chicken just maneuvering foolishly. Their spaceship boat had its front third lopped off. The japeanese continued to signal "Fuck you" by nailing them with their water cannon.

How come the sea sheppards don't have water cannons? I feel like for the money they spent on Knightboat the Ady Gil They might have more effectiely bought a bigger boat with water cannons on it.

Ouf of curiosity would a Blimp have been rediculous? Unless the japanese are hardcore enough to shoot it down they can float arround irriating the shit out of them all they want.

One of the standard tactics for activists is basically playing chicken. The Sea Shepperds are renowned for ramming vessels, but they obviously can't do that with a speedboat. But yeah, finished watching the vid, and I wonder what they were trying to accomplish so close to the whaler? Throwing stinkbombs, blinding dudes, snaring the prop and rudder? The article implies the latter, but how would they accomplish this when they are beside the vessel?

As per water cannons, the SSCS walk a very fine line between legality and assault. Water cannons, I think, pushes that over the edge. The whalers do it (and throw flashbangs) because they can claim they "feel threatened" when the other ship enters such close proximity and refuses to be warned away. It is an odd little jig they dance.

I don't think blimps have the endurance for extended operations or the speed for catch ships. Not to mention how much the high winds would fuck things up.

Is there a decent paper that we can consider to be a national paper in Canada?

The Globe?

[Darth Yan]

wow primus. that is kind of depressing

[CJvR]

A bit of annoying Norwegian advertising but good video.

http://www.vgtv.no/?id=27840&category=1
http://www.vgtv.no/?id=27841&category=1

[MKSheppard]

Clearly Japan needs to invest in a fleet of nuclear powered 28 knot whalers with reinforced hulls, so that they can outrun all sea shepherd attempts to intercept them; and if they can't outrun them, set RAMMING SPEED.

[Knife]

Clearly Japan needs to invest in a fleet of nuclear powered 28 knot whalers with reinforced hulls, so that they can outrun all sea shepherd attempts to intercept them; and if they can't outrun them, set RAMMING SPEED.

Why, so far they seem rather safe in the ships they have. Last year, the Steve Erwin rammed a Japanese ship with little damage to the Whaler and a nice big gouge on the Sea Shepard's ship. This year, again, it was a Sea Shepard's ship broken, not the Japanese ships. Seems to me that their ship designs are working out quite well.

ut yeah, finished watching the vid, and I wonder what they were trying to accomplish so close to the whaler? Throwing stinkbombs, blinding dudes, snaring the prop and rudder?

From watching the show last year, their little CRRC's rubber boats pretty much did the exact same maneuver for a prop-fouler a couple times. They attempted to do it next to them the first time and the Japanese ship just turned out of the line of 'fire', I believe they did it again way out in front of them with similar results. The attempt that was some what successful was when they cut right in front of the whaler and dropped the net off right next to the bow for the Japanese ship to drive over and hit the props. They, the Sea Shepard's, almost got run over last year doing that so I'm not surprised they got hit this year.

[Sea Skimmer]

Either way, I agree that the protest ship was asking for trouble. I just get pissed off at the rampant dishonesty of the Japanese whalers, and the blatant contempt for conservationism shown by Japan in general. It's not just whales; the bluefin tuna is in danger of imminent extinction, again thanks largely to Japan.

God have you ever seen Wales Wars? The people in Sea Shepherd are possibly some of the dumbest people on earth and they lie all the fucking time too. See last years bullshit when they claimed the Japanese had taken crewmen hostage after they climbed onto the Japanese ship and Sea Shepherd then sailed away, or even better yet when Paul Watson was raving for weeks that the Japanese had shot him. They are so dumb they had a guy at the helm who couldn’t even read a compass while passing through an ice field. Its staggering to believe that they have not had there ship sink on them yet and all frozen to death. I’m not a fan of whaling, but Sea Shepherd acts in such a consistently retarded lying manner too that they pretty well ensure that nothing will change. This whole incident ought to be on the air as an episode within a few months. All they accomplish is to discredit much more rational environmental groups and they’ve certainly never actually slowed down the Japanese whaling. The gap between the scale of the flesh harvest vs. the capacity for one whale factory ship to gobble up absurd hoards of whales is too big for it to matter.

[Edward Yee]

In retrospect, kinda sad to see Bob "The Price is Wrong, Bitch!" Barker align with them, even if it's claimed by Sea Shepherd that it was their idea to name a ship after him.