Japanese ship sinks whale protest boat Ady Gil – The Age — Another salvo in the war on the yearly Japanese ‘scientific research’ whale cull. The link contains some video. Another video report here.
UPDATE : This video more clearly shows the Japanese ship closing on the Ady Gil. It was shot from another SS vessel.
The high-tech stealth boat Ady Gil was cut in half and sunk by a Japanese security vessel in Antarctic waters today, dramatically upping the stakes in the annual struggle between whalers and protesters.
Sea Shepherd group leader Paul Watson told Fairfax Media the $1.5 million Ady Gil was sinking, but its six-man crew had been rescued and was uninjured.
Earlier today, the fleet was contacted for the first time by the Ady Gil and Sea Shepherd’s “secret” third vessel, the Bob Barker.
Captain Watson, aboard the Steve Irwin, said he was still 500 nautical miles from the scene.
“This seriously escalates the whole situation,” Captain Watson said of the collision.
The ICR said the Ady Gil came “within collision distance” directly in front of the Nisshin Maru bow and repeatedly deployed a rope from its stern “to entangle the Japanese vessel’s rudder and propeller”.
The statement accused the activists of shining a laser device at the Nisshin Maru crew and launching acid-filled projectiles, one of which landed on the vessel’s deck.
Having been a fishing boat crewman (Alaska) and having watched this video over and over, it’s obvious that the Ady’s skipper screwed up and got closer than he should have to a big fast ship’s path in choppy seas. He makes a last ditch attempt to power out of the way, but only manages to turn it from a graze into a hard collision. The Japanese ship makes a hard port turn at the last second to avoid running over them, but you just can’t make a ship that big turn on a dime….as SS knows quite well.
No, they didn’t stop to help, as another SS ship was nearby, the crew were in survival suits, and turning would have taken longer than letting the other SS ship rescue them, which it did.
For the record, I wish the Japanese would stop whaling, but the SS are counterproductive in the extreme. No Japanese thinks they are anything but dangerous pirates, and whale consumption goes up every time these idiots pull their dangerous crap. I live in Japan, and I can see the Japanese getting more stubborn with every stink bomb and ramming…if SS would stop their illegal attacks on whalers, whaling would end due to economics within a decade. As it is, they are getting govt subsidies to make up for the losses due to SS.
SS are a bunch of childish, self-important vigilantes, and I laughed my ass off when I saw this.
If I were the Japanese, I would claim to have never seen the Ady, as it was a “stealth” ship.
#1 Wally
I guess the ship wasn’t so stealthy after all :). I figured the smaller ship would have been the one rammed but I defer to your seamanship expertise.
Agreed with Wallywhalewatcher, and if you spend a few minutes searching on youtube for a functional link you will find other videos where the statements of shining lasers are supported.
Another item of interest is many of the other Sea Shepard subject videos, looks to me like they are dumb thugs in need of a real job. Risking their lives and the lives of others, pushing their beliefs and point of views over other peoples culture and beliefs.
Try this for the video
If this isn’t the video it sure looks like someone else F’ed up.
Wow, that was fast. They’ve already pulled the video. I wonder if it has been posted on Vimeo.
[Indeed it has – thanks – h.]
Most ecotards are self-righteous a-holes trying to ram their utopian nonsense onto the rest of us. They got what they deserved not to mention the pollution their sunken boat is now causing.
Yeah!!!! It reminds me of when the French sank the green peace vessel that was trying to block a warship from entering port.
#1, how is this different from the Chinese hitting the spy plane in 2001? I would expect that the faster ship is at fault.
Completely support the anti-whaling efforts in the Antarctic to protect these vulnerable species. Never mind whaling is immoral and only done for some bizarre Japanese prehistoric cultural reasons. Don’t even talk to me about the Japanese disgusting ritual of shark finning.
Japan can fish for whales off their own shit filled waters. Did I say fish? Oops, I meant “scientifically research” whales by exploding harpoon and selling the meat.
Never went to Japan, never will.
I don’t know who Ady Gil is, but naming ships after Bob Barker and Steve Irwin? One got beat up by Adam Sandler, and the other got killed by a sea creature.
The Japanese are taking the piss claiming they are doing ‘research’ so they can get around a ban on whaling, and then selling the meat.
They are doing something. They have the guts to put their lives on the line for something they believe in.
Really all they are doing is raising the profile of this hypocrisy. Although it would be nice if the Japanese changed their actions, raising the issue internationally is more likely to have an effect which is what they are doing.
They may go to far. They may have made a mistake here.
Still the arm chair punditry here is pretty spectacular.
Lets see if I can capture the possible reasoning…
1) Whales are not human – so we shouldn’t care
2) God created whales for us to do as we will
3) ‘Freedom’ means doing whatever wherever we want
4) If whales are too stupid to escape or fight back they deserve the result
5) The government will fix it
6) Saving whales is not in the constitution or the bible
7) They should sue the Japanese government
8) Nobody should ever break the ‘law’ for any reason
9) Who cares? It doesn’t directly and obviously effect me.
10) They put themselves in that position so it’s their fault, thus cleverly avoiding why they did this.
Seriously, how much different are these a-holes from pirates.
Oh I missed out…
11) Whales are not going extinct – it’s a scientific/government/activist conspiracy/scam
12) The activists are doing this only for profit, because financial reward is the _only_ reason to do anything.
13) They are deranged hippies thinking they are doing good but actually they are making it _much worse_. Somehow.
#13 Seriously? Perhaps in your simple mind that since two boats and are involved there’s piracy in there somewhere.
What a goof you are. Go have another lard bagel.
What is the difference between a whale and a guppie?
What kind of ship was that??
Looks like a reject from Battlestar Galactica.
Look what happens when those good environmentalist go up against the evil Japanese Cylons.
—13) They are deranged hippies thinking they are doing good but actually they are making it _much worse_. Somehow.—-
This one is basically correct. The Japanese hardly eat whale (much of it goes into pet food), but there is a huge run on it every time the SS start their dangerous idiocy. I know this because I live in Japan, very near the home port of the whaling fleet. People who almost never eat whale go eat it just to defy the “self-righteous foreigners” who are ordering the Japanese around.
I don’t like the whaling, but it will not be stopped by these means, only prolonged. Economically, whaling is a dead end and would end on it’s own within a decade of left alone. They keep the fleet active with govt subsidies and tax and fee breaks because they don’t want to lose the jobs. That would not be a big enough reason to continue dumping money into whaling EXCEPT for the pride factor…which SS handily keeps on the boil.
So nice going, SS. You’ve just made the Japanese more likely to continue. I’m sure the whales appreciate it.
Note to crew: don’t park $5 million boat in front of a much larger boat that is moving.
#19 Lame excuse for not doing anything.
If not for the “SS”, the whole concept of protecting these species would be lost and existing international anti-whaling agreements would not even be in place.
Your notion that people eat whale meat to “get even with foreigners” is so full of shit. Is that what they’re telling you there in your Japanese port?
#22 Pedrito, Shouldn’t you be making flour tortillas instead of surfing the web?
This topic is serious and not about Obama. Ariba Ariba.
#21 Actually yes, if a foreign country told me not to do something because they don’t like it of course I’d do it out of protest, who wouldn’t?
Obvious example is the people (I’m not talking about terrorist orgs) of Iraq who want us Westerners out of their country…
#19 wallywhalewatcher
I’ve read and I understand your argument.
That said you are only using the potential negatives of their actions, and give no weight to the potential positives, assuming decreasing the decreasing of killing of endangered species is your objective.
What about the benefit of raising internationally the profile of the issue?
How about decreasing the amount of and raising the price of the meat?
By making it hard for whalers to kill whales – making such a job presumably less desirable?
I’m also finding the economic argument a bit weird. Lots of it goes into pet food? Really? All that expensive apparently desirable meat going into pet food? And the government endorses and subsidies it, and calls it ‘research’ to get around the international ban? For pet food. Is it super expensive pet food?
I’ve mixed feelings about the SS. I’m sure they do harm as well as good. It seems a stretch that the harm completely outweighs the good. It was only bought to my attention because of the SS for example.
I also don’t have much faith that it would just disappear in 10 years if nobody did anything either.
#25 William
‘Actually yes, if a foreign country told me not to do something because they don’t like it of course I’d do it out of protest, who wouldn’t?’
Even if it was wrong? Say your country was engaged in genocide. You would then engage in said genocide yourself as a ‘protest’ if another country disagreed with it? That’s really using your head.
There already is an international agreement that the overfishing of endangered whales is illegal. That the Japanese government work around via a loop hole for ‘research’, which clearly this isn’t.
Yet presumably you won’t ‘protest’ about that.
#25 I’m betting the net result is positive. Sure, I remember “freedom fries” and the dumping of French wine back in the day.
However, the net result of exposing to the world community to this horrific and unnecessary act of “fishing” off Antarctic waters for endangered animals is good.
I’m not a big believer of doing nothing and expecting change with “wait and see”.
#28
> However, the net
> result of exposing to
> the world community to
> this horrific and
> unnecessary act of
> “fishing” off Antarctic
> waters for endangered
> animals is good.
How far is one allowed to take this? What if these SS start sinking fishing boats? What if they start firing on them? Given that you think their cause is just is any means to achieve their goals acceptable? When does the concept of law actually enter into the equation?
The Hippies needed a bath anyway….
what a bunch of retards, physics lessons
needed. Plastic stealth craft vs steel whaling vessel…then trow inertia into the mix.
Bet the morons still acted surprised.
To diverge from the intellectual discussion, I liked the direct shot from the fire hose as the larger boat passes the visibly wrecked Ady Gil right when the people are trying to stand up after their collision. Like a shot of soda water in an old vaudeville act.
It’s lunchtime here at the Institute of Pizza Research.
Clearly the Japanese vessel was playing chicken with the stopped Ady Gil. The incident is due to provocation by both parties, but the Japanese response was to bully.
AND, they are killing whales illegally, for profit, under the guise of BS “research.”
How much Japanese whale product arrives in the US? Not zero.
Not stopped.
This be what is on their flag ARRR!
Aye matey! Many an eye was patched and peg leg given to the survivors of the Ady Gil.