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.
I wanna know how pissed off BATMAN was when he found out what they did to his boat. What a bunch of idiots! LOL
Again, leave the cute, gay-ish, freaky, kinky and sometimes grotesque little Japanese people alone. They like fish so give’em a break! If you aren’t talking about nuking them again please stfu.
They like fish, we like screwing people over, China loves money and resources, etc etc etc…so what, live with it as many of you seem to like anyhow. Just sit there comfortably and continue to read, complain and voice how others should do things according to what you think.
Bashing them is just wrong. Nuke them all is the only answer, people and nature. I hate Fcking hypocrites.
The bigger ship was turning to port. They had the right of way. You can tell from the fire hoses streaming and the sirens that they couldn’t turn fast enough and were warning the plastic stealth boat away.
Their boat wasn’t dead in the water. No ship churns that much water when it is not underway. The most maneuverable vessel must give the rightaway because larger ships can turn on a dime. Besides the SS was trying to deploy netting to disable the rudder and screw of the whaler which could cause the larger ship to capsize.
Any board of inquiry would conclude the captain of the smaller vessel put his crew in harms way by reckless seamanship. If they didn’t have survival suits on they would be dead. It was a jackass maneuver, and they lucked out.
Damn, Watson got away this time too…..!
Morally right or wrong the Japanese are operating within international legal boundaries. These guys going after the whalers are complete idiots. The people in charge are risking OTHERS lives trying to get headlines. They are no different than the ecoterrorists of the past and need to be locked up. The japanese fleets ought to take a lesson from the shippers dealing with Somali pirates and shoot back when attacked or boarded.
#38 Benjamin
‘Besides the SS was trying to deploy netting to disable the rudder and screw of the whaler which could cause the larger ship to capsize.’
Capsize? Sounds like hokey physics to me. For a small boat – like a speed boat, which is light, and has high power to weight ratio, sure.
This is a huge ship. I couldn’t find its displacement to do some simple sums, but I’ll claim its highly unlikely. Unless you can find a link to a similarly sized boat that has been capsized via a non secured line. I couldn’t.
#32:
“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.”
Same here. 🙂
I also like how the video directly contradicts the statement in the news story: “The high-tech stealth boat Ady Gil was cut in half and sunk by a Japanese security vessel in Antarctic waters today,…”
Didn’t look “cut in half” to me.
#41 Daniel
So lets assume it is morally wrong. Not only that but I would hope we can agree that in the spirit of the law it is legally wrong.
So how does your suggestion (shooting people trying to stop the ‘morally wrong’ action) going to swiftly bring about a satisfactory conclusion?
I’m assuming the satisfactory conclusion would include stopping the ‘morally/ arguably legally wrong’ action.
#43 mikiev
‘Didn’t look “cut in half” to me.’
Yes. Well spotted. What a bunch of dicks, for not describing it more to your liking.
And the getting hit with a high pressure water canon after being hit. Hil-ar-ious.
I guess if a few activists had died, you would be rolling on the floor laughing.
I’m a vegan podcaster, and will be covering this on my show when more information comes out.
I’m AGAINST Sea Shepherd because of the dumb pranks they do. Theres always been all this talk of how cool they are for ramming Japanese boats etc, and now its happened to one of the most beautiful ships in the world? I loved Earth Race, as a New Zealander I was very proud of it.
I felt sick watching the video of it being hit. And, to see the whalers continue to spray them with the high pressure hoses…I thought was just immature. I cant believe the shit that goes on down there, its like a bunch of children fighting. When you are in the middle of nowhere, you shouldnt be ramming into other people, both sides shouldn’t, and when you do hit someone, even your “enemy”, you shouldnt try and knock them into the freezing water, after you have crippled their ship.
I dont know much about boats, so I’ll wait until more is known before I talk about it on my show. Do you think that Sea Shepherd WANTED the boat to be hit? I cant believe that it would just stay there like that…from the beginning I thought it was crazy to have the beautiful Earth Race (“Ady Gil”) down there. It was “reinforced” with carbon fibre, but still…
I’m glad that Sea Shepherd run a Vegan ship, “we’re meant to be protecting animals, not killing them”, but I disagree with their damn stupid pranks, peoples lives are also at stake.
Quite clear that the jap rammed the small boat. No indication of turning to port. Look at the sea surface.
Well this is what the protesters want. Wait for the jap junk boat to be torpedoed.
I agree with the Japs, these guys are as bad as pirates and they turn people away who might otherwise support their cause. Whaling is abominable but so is their behavior which appears to be more publicity stunt than an actual impairment to whaling.
There is a lot of support for the anti-whalers in Australia, as much of the whale cull is happening in Australian territorial waters, and Aussies have had it in for the Japanese ever since they bombed Darwin in WWII. The Australian government sits on their hands while paying lip service to the community sentiment.
I agree with the assessment that the captain of the Ady Gil made a mistake and got in the way of the security vessel, but who is going to take the fight to the Japanese if the Aussie government wont, despite saying that they will / are?
Anyone want to join me in starting an “Institute for Japanese Medical Research”?
The only caveat is that the only way to conduct the necessary research is to shoot suitable specimens with small scale explosives, wait until they’re immobile, then gut and fillet them alive.
And given this age of environmentalism, we’d better not waste the remains, so I’m negotiating a partnership with Japan’s largest pet food manufacturer to ensure that not a scrap is wasted. Yes, I will be open to accepting environmental awards in addition to the inevitable Nobel Prize for Medicine.
Please won’t you join me in improving the health and well being of the poor endangered Japanese?
Yep, I live here now, and whale consumption goes up every time these incidents happen. And the old fogeys in the Diet (who grew up eating whale meat in school lunches) pour more money into the whaling industry, citing the higher consumption. It’s usually remarked upon in the Japanese papers.
Yes, most of the meat goes into pet food…like many have said, whale is not very popular among most people, and only the very best cuts get to restaurants…and outside this area, there aren’t many restaurants that serve it.
I think some are underestimating the effects of national pride. This riles up the Japanese like crazy. This industry is totally a money-loser and is only supported by the old fogeys who fondly remember the whale in their school lunches in the 50’s and don’t like to have foreigners tell them what to do. Without the SS incidents, they would have more of an uphill battle getting funding to shore it up.
If it’s a traditional right for the Japanese to have access to Whale meat as part of their diet, then let them hunt using traditional means, in traditional waters.
Oh wait, they killed all the whales in their waters.
Let’s wait for some of these whaling vessels to start mysteriously disappearing.
Very appropriate alias “wallywhalewatcher”, you certainly are a Wally! I don’t think much of your fishing boat experience. It’s plain to see that the Ady Gil was virtually stationary in the water, if not dead in the water. You must be looking through rum bottle bottoms. The Nisshin Maru clearly changes course with the intention of ramming the Ady Gil, then veers to port at the last minute to avoid totally running over the vessel. If you doubt my interpretation, I invite you to check out this indisputable camera angle.
And “doughoist” #8, I hope you’re not referring to the Rainbow Warrior that was cowardly sunk, here in Auckland NZ, in the cover of darkness, while moored in port – resulting in the death of an innocent human being?
Daniel said:
“Morally right or wrong the Japanese are operating within international legal boundaries. These guys going after the whalers are complete idiots. The people in charge are risking OTHERS lives trying to get headlines. They are no different than the ecoterrorists of the past and need to be locked up. The japanese fleets ought to take a lesson from the shippers dealing with Somali pirates and shoot back when attacked or boarded.”
Incorrect. The Japanese whaling fleet is presently operating within Australian territorial waters. The Australian Federal Court has ruled that whaling within Australian territorial waters is illegal. So the Japanese whaling fleet is operating illegally within another country’s territory.
As far as I’m concerned the Australian Navy should impound their vessels and arrest the crews. Or hell, just torpedo the fuckers and send them to the bottom of the ocean. At least we’d rescue the survivors rather than machine gun them.
With regards to who is right or wrong in the collision, it appears that the SS vessel is moving slowly across the path of the Japanese ship, which would have right of way. However it appears that the Japanese ship makes a course correction that steers towards the SS vessel. It could be a camera angle issue, I’d like to see other video of the collision to be sure.
Grim, what makes the Japanese position (on whether to continue whaling, not this incident) even shakier is that they’ve only been whaling commercially since around 1910 or so, and it wasn’t in small boats, it was in then-modern whaling ships from Norway. They like to let people imagine it going back centuries. Only some small communities caught whales before that, and not the same ones where whaling is now based.
After the war the US gave them a bunch of old whalers so they could use whale to get the national diet up from a near starvation level.
So even if the tradition argument were a good one (and I don’t think it is, unless, as you say, they go out in small boats with hand-thrown harpoons), they would have a hard time claiming it with any credibility.
45 actually after watching whale wars, yes I would laughed my ass off. Adults realize there are consequences to the actions they take. Paul Watson take idealistic, simpering, little know nothings and places them in danger of which he is aware of, and they know little or nothing of. If something bad happens he gets his smarmy ass in the press about how bad the Japanese are. Yet he never pays the price of putting his precious self on the line. Do I support whaling no I do not. If the Japanese are taking species that are endangered they should be stopped (facts stated but never shown in evidence). However if they are “harvesting” whales that are not endangered. Than they are commercial fishing which as far as I know is currently still legal. What I found most amusing about the show was the number of people who whore masks, or hid their face during shooting. If your proud of what you do stand up and take credit. As my momo said never do anything that you would be ashamed to stand up in public and admit to.
Check this video from around 1:22:
Not conclusive but the Japanese vessel appears to twice turn directly towards the Sea Shepherd vessel (you can twice see the Japanese vessel tilt to port in response to a starboard steering input).
The Sea Shepherd vessel then applies throttle and moves across the path of the Japanese vessel but at that point the collision is inevitable.
The Japanese vessel steers to port after the collision – note that the vessel is relatively manoeverable, it’s hardly an cruise liner or container ship.
In my opinion the Japanese have steered directly at the Sea Shepherd vessel. I doubt that they intentionally collided with it but they are responsible for the collision as they steered towards the other, near stationary vessel.
Sorry meant wore masks, might have been a Freudian slip.
There is a clear wake and bubble path behind the anti-whaling zealots’ boat’s stern indicating the craft was underway and heading into the path of the whaling vessel.
This correlates well to other attacks by the group on whalers by dragging cables into their path to foul their screws.
The anti’s are pirates impeding navigation and commerce on the high seas.
watch the videos again. Did that Ady Gil ship speed up on purpose to get hit?
There is video available from another vessel of the same incident. It seems to show the Japanese vessel making two course corrections turning directly towards the SS vessel prior to the SS vessel speeding up. I posted a link earlier but it’s in moderation at the moment.
Holy whale poop, Batman!
Way to get your multi-million dollar boat sunk so that it leaks all its diesel fuel into the ocean.
Maybe Sea Shepherds they should be called the “Dynamic Dumbshits”.
SS deserves to get lampooned by South Park. Oh, wait, they already did that.
How much $$ did they waste on their stealth ship?
And how many homeless starving people could that money have helped??
Good to see another angle, but it doesn’t show a clear attempt to hit the SS boat, which would anyway not be in the interests of the whalers. No way they ran over it intentionally, knowing they were on video. The fact that they released their video first seems to indicate they feel they have nothing to hide.
Ships in that kind of sea are simply not as controllable as some think, and ships have a serious delay in the time maneuvers are started and when they take effect. This is the real ocean, not a video game. SS knows this and took the risk and lost.
The whaler seems to have made 2 corrections, a starboard turn to try and cut off the SS boat from approaching the mothership (when it leans heavily to port as it turns starboard), and a move back to centerline to avoid running over them (when it straightens back up as it comes out of the turn). When the SS captain gunned the engines (probably thinking he’d zip past the bow), he put himself right in front of the whaler. Had he not gunned the engines then, the whaler would have passed in front. The original position of the SS boat would have been safe. No way the whaler could have stopped or avoided the collision once SS gunned it.
According to international traffic rules, it’s definitely the fault of the AG boat for trying to get that close to a larger slower vessel.
The Ady Gil is actually powered by biofuel