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Activist: 'We Now Have a Real Whale War on Our Hands'
Protest boat destroyed
PROTESTERS say they will step up their ''war'' on Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean despite the loss of a front-line protest vessel yesterday in a dramatic collision with one of the whaling fleet.
The Ady Gil after being rammed. Photo: JoAnne McArthur/Sea Shepherd The Sea Shepherd group said it had no intention of pulling out of the conflict after the $2 million protest trimaran Ady Gil had its bow sheared off in the collision with the whaling ship Shonan Maru No. 2.
"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,'' said Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson. ''We now have a real whale war on our hands.''
The Japanese Government blamed the protesters for the collision, accusing them of sailing too close to the whaling ship and suddenly slowing while crossing in front of it. ''These acts of sabotage that threaten our country's whaling ships and crew were extremely dangerous,'' Japan's Fisheries Agency said. ''It is totally unforgivable.''
Mr Watson denied the Ady Gil crew had been the aggressors, saying the trimaran was idle in waters near Commonwealth Bay, off the Adelie Coast of Antarctica, when it was suddenly rammed by the Japanese ship.
Video footage released by Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research last night showed the Ady Gil gradually increasing in speed into the path of the Japanese ship, countering the Sea Shepherd claim that the Ady Gil was not moving when it was hit.
Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the Government wanted more information about the incident before commenting on its cause.
However, acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard hit out at Japan over yesterday's revelation in The Age that its whalers had organised spy flights from Australian airports to track the Sea Shepherd ships.
''I make it very clear on behalf of the Australian Government we do not condone this action by the Japanese Government,'' Ms Gillard said. ''We are urgently seeking legal advice about the matter to see what our options are.''
Yesterday's collision came after a day of harassment of the whaling fleet by the Ady Gil and a newly-unveiled Sea Shepherd ship, the icebreaker Bob Barker.
In the skirmishing, the Ady Gil's crew tried to entangle the propeller of the factory ship Nisshin Maru but were pursued by Shonan Maru No. 2, which has been deployed to protect the whaling fleet from activists.
The Ady Gil's skipper, New Zealander Pete Bethune, insisted the vessel was stationary and farewelling fellow activists on the Bob Barker when the incident happened.
Mr Bethune told The Age that the 1000-tonne Japanese ship turned toward the 18-tonne Ady Gil from about 75 metres away. ''We though they were going to turn a water cannon on us and I told my crew to brace for that,'' he said. ''Then they T-boned my boat. It was just massive ... It's a miracle we all survived.''
The six aboard were uninjured and able to board the Bob Barker from the floating rear section.
''Today is a clear example of how the Japanese don't give a shit,'' Mr Bethune said. ''But this is the end of whaling. You can't go around saying you're trying to conduct scientific research when you're prepared to drive into other people's boats.''
Fellow crew member Laurens de Groot said: ''They were trying to kill us, ramming us like that in one of the most hostile environments in the world.''
Last night the two pieces of the trimaran, formerly the globe-circling Earthrace, were still afloat and the activists were salvaging what they could, including 400 litres of fuel.
An investigation into the incident is to be mounted by the NZ Government, which is the flag state for the Ady Gil.
Coalition environment spokesman Greg Hunt and Greens leader Bob Brown repeated calls for Australia to send a ship south to reassert authority.
The conflict is likely to flare up again within days when Mr Watson's vessel, the Steve Irwin, arrives after refuelling in Hobart.
Mr Garrett said the Government was not making any decision yet about sending a vessel south. ''We will carefully consider whether any additional actions or measures are needed,'' he said.
Mr Hunt and Senator Brown called for legislation to block the logistical use of Australian assets to support whaling activity.
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67 Comments so far
Show AllThe Ady Gil was crossing the Japanese ship from starboard to port. The whaler was the 'burdened' ship.
this collision was allowed to happen...
IT is pretty clear from the second video, that the Japanese turned into the Ady Gil intentionally.
Looks like attempted murder to me.
I agree that the angle of the japanese ship looks suspicious, at times, but wave action could be partially responsible...the water cannon could be seen as aggressive, but could also, arguably, serve as a warning...
my primary question is: when is the captain of the smaller ship beholden to try to avoid such things? was the smaller ship disabled? they didn't seem to infer such...
from the article:
"Mr Watson denied the Ady Gil crew had been the aggressors, saying the trimaran was idle in waters near Commonwealth Bay, off the Adelie Coast of Antarctica, when it was suddenly rammed by the Japanese ship."
suddenly rammed?
peace
Looks to me like:
1. Small ship barely moving at a distance from larger ship. Larger ship moving with speed.
2. Larger ship adjusts course and turns to collide with small ship
3. Small ship guns engine to get away
4. Larger ship re-adjusts course to not overshoot the now-moving smaller ship
5. Collision
6. Larger ship re-adjusts course again back to original direction.
Obviously, had the small ship not been fiberglass, this never would have happened.
Boy, I hope the Japanese lose this one big... Let's hear them in court justify what the ships were doing in the name of 'research'. A full trial could blow the phony japanese whaling stuff wide open. Good lawyers should be drooling for this opportunity..
How about becoming a human being instead of intellectualizing something so clearly obvious brother.
Here I help you:
1. Whale sanctuary
2. Whaling fleet
What more information do you need?!
I cry for the day when there will be no whales swimming the oceans.
Wouldn't it be funny if we all just debated about who rammed who and who is to blame for the collision rather than discuss the need for direct action anti-whaling activists in the first place?
the accident, and blame, seems to be the subject of the article...
whales are killed and processed because whales are a valuable commodity
perhaps boycotting whale products?
direct action can take many forms...open sea confrontation is only one...
How about boycotting Japanese products and letting them know you're doing so and why? I did this with Toyota, telling them why I won't buy a new vehicle from them as long as whaling continues. Their reply was that they didn't have any control over whaling. You can bet if their bottom line suffers they suddenly will have a voice in the situation.
I've also let Canada know why I won't spend a penny there until the seal hunt ends and how much this costs their travel industry every year. (I can even get to Alaska from the lower 48 without flying and without buying gas in Canada by using the Alaska Ferry out of Bellingham, WA, then driving the stretch from Haines, AK through the Yukon to Tok, AK on the gas in the tank filled in Bellingham.)
With a little planning it can be done. Your spending pattern is the only voice and real vote you have whether here in the U.S. or anyplace else. Buying is a "yes" vote, not buying is a "no" vote.
Symbolic action can be useful. But to suppose it is the only power one has is to forclose other means that are also useful.
A "buycott" is an act best performed by those who are privileged. It supposes that one has money in the first place which, of course, most people do not.
Nor do the whales have money to "vote" with.
So while we wait around and try to organize some sorts of meaningful and effective mass voluntary transformative movement, the Sea Shepherds risk life and limb and are much more effective in an immediate sense than whatever pipe dreams of a purchasing revolution.
But we are already starting to withdraw our support of them for doing what most of us will never have the courage to do. Take risk. To defend those who cannot defend themselves.
We are marching right along to the tunes that the propaganda mills dictate and are aghast at any action that has a whiff of (gasp!) violence. So we feel morally superior to those who act in property damage, because at least we have not crossed the line of pacifism. While whales are murdered. Real blood. Real death. Real brutality. Yet, we are coming close to defending the Japanese whalers from the abhored violence/recklessness/danger that the Sea Shepherds engage in.We are coming close to doing the mainstream medias work for them by acting horrified that someone would actually think to put their bodies in the path of a murderer.
The Sea Shepherds are doing nothing more than what should be expected from any of us if we were walking down the street and saw someone being brutally assaulted - attempted murder no less. Would we intervene? Or is that violence? The difference is that the Sea Shepherds are going out of their way to intervene. They are dedicated and have the courage of their convictions. And because practically no one else is doing jack shit about this issue, they feel they must. In my view, that shows an integrity that most do not have.
It would all be so cool if "we could all just...." spend our way to a peaceful sustainable world.
Thank you Glen!
Do you also boycott all American made products, to protest the atrocious way that meat animals are treated on industrial farms?
Boycotting is a useful tool, but indiscriminate boycotting achieves nothing. Indiscriminate boycotting would mean that one would have to basically boycott everything and everyone, and is unworkable.
love your guys concern for animals other than humans. How about the Israelis in Gaza and the Americans in Iraq and Afganistan and the Chinese in Tibet? Some respondents are talking about giving atomic bombs to Japan (what?!?!) and "Japs". Great, love all this hatred as an answer to this question which obviously has a lot of cultural confusion. Do you think the Japanese are killing more whales a week that the Americans are killing innocent civilians with "smart bombs"?
I'm not sure if it was your intent but. Your post seems to suggest an hierarchy that puts humans at the top. It really does sound truly anthropocentric.
It is not my feeling that humans matter more than any other beings.
Maybe you should reread my post. You appear to have a problem with reading comprehension.
And please stop the pathetic attempts at trying to turn this into a cultural imperialism debate. Only a minority (an ageing minority) of Japanese people eat whale meat.
matthew loughran
personally i support the sea shepard and what they are doing to stop this insanity.
whales are already endangered and they should not be hunted anymore.
we in this country need to protect people and the environment from many crappy US corporations that are destroying the environment and making people sick. direct action is one effective way to do it. it is not only the japanese and their corporate interests that are the bad guy.
matt loughran
harris county green party
Well said!!!
What the F!@#$ are these bastards doing there to begin with, let's not forget it is a whale sanctuary!!! What the Sea Shepherds need is a destroyer, and I hope this kind of publicity will serve up some big financial support for the Shepherds!
And yes, I am on the side of the whales in case anybody wonders.
It's important who rammed who, because maybe it can be the legal leak in the dam that blows open the whole Japanese 'research' bull. I'm sure you will find the sea sheppards' agreeing. Sure, talk about the larger picture, but the larger picture has been there forever - do you think we have a fair media? Of course not! What do you expect from them?
"the accident, and blame, seems to be the subject of the article..."
Exactly. They have us talking about what they want us to be talking about.
They(the media)have framed the direction we are supposed to travel when discussing and/or thinking, viewing/or perceiving what is important about this issue.
It is utterly unimportant who rammed who. This is not the play yard. The whales do not have the luxury of debating "who started it". Do we? really?
Some questions:
What do the whales think about all of this? What do we suppose the whales care about? Who rammed who? Or that someone may have stopped the immediate danger, even if only for a coupla hours?
please don't misunderstand me...I would love to see whales allowed to live natural, unaffected lives...I would love to see the termination of the goddamned underwater sound blasts that drive these incredible creatures onto beaches to die, rather than remain within reach of those agonizing, powerful and ubiquitous manmade waves of volume and pressure...like jumpers on 911: anywhere else but here, even death...
I have simply been addressing the subject of the article...I agree that media directs our thoughts...I fight that every day...
we must provide alternative lives to those catching whales for profit, and for those consuming whales as products...an alternative consciousness that is not property-driven...
Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...no more industry, no more whaling...acoustic, agrarian living...local water, food and shelter...
I disagree here.
It is vitally important who rammed who and who caused this incident. This is a very serious incident at sea and might have killed someone. All collisions at sea should be fully investigated. What is unimportant is what the missions of the ships were. Who cares if it's a whaler or not? There was a collision and it needs to be investigated.
(I'm not pro whaling. I just don't believe that it's relevant to the situation.)
I'm not sure I understand you. Are you suggesting that it's more important to discover the truth behind what could have killed a human or humans (but didn't. Nor has it yet.) than it is to address why actual killing is happening?
What is this sudden regard for laws regarding human travel at sea over what in my mind seems like an ethical catastrophe of allowing defensless beings to be slaughtered indiscriminately?
Is it me or does it sound like some priorities are out of order?
Besides that, the Sea Shepherds understand quite well that they are risking their lives.
The Japanese? They are there to take lives. There should always be an understanding of the cost to taking lives. Since they demonstrate no concern what-so-ever foir the raping of the oceans, I couldn't care less if they have casualties (which they haven't...yet).
Sea Shepherds are there to save lives. They know the risks.
With whom do you ally yourself? Killers or protectors?
But from the sound of it, you are more interested in applying some abstract human made law of etiquette for people on the water. This just seems convoluted to me.
Lastly, you don't believe whaling is relevent to the situation? Jaysis.
"I agree that media directs our thoughts...I fight that every day..."
Yes...Me too:(
"we must provide alternative lives to those catching whales for profit"
I do not always agree with the notion that we must take care of the abusers. At least primarily. Let's protect the abused. Then, we can address the safety of the abusers. I do not subscribe to the idea that the abusers need to be helped first.
Stop the bleeding first. Then the healing can begin. By whatever means necessary. I don't know why so many of us think there is, or needs to be an elegant solution. It is a brutally bloody problem. I suspect that the solution(s) will be (are? Sea Shepherds anyone?)a bit messy as well.
Sometimes, not always, but sometimes, there is a need to get elbows deep in the muck to understand what really has to happen.
whaling, like so many other abhorrent aspects of our society, is built into the psychological fabric of property ownership and profit...
we are all caught up in the web together, and you cannot separate one from another when discussing solutions...the solution must address all needs, whalecatcher, whaleconsumer and whale...
finally, I am reluctant to be as blunt as I wish due to the public, and monitored, nature of this, and other, blogsites, but:
there are, ultimately, individuals directly responsible for this practice...
Word.
;)
I think you should be as blunt as possible or as needed..
I second 'word'! ;)
was that last blast of water from the japanese boat a way of saying "we're sorry that was an accident." seems an extension of animosity, adding insult to injury. capitalism shows its angry side. is there any other?
How about that? It seems as if the Sea Sheperds can dish it out but cannot take it.
Hey, I don't know what the sign for giving someone the finger on this board is, but I'm giving it to you,you stellar example of whats wrong in this world ;)
And since I flipped you of you deserve to know my name.
Andreas
That's okay, Andreas - I can take it!
"Fellow crew member Laurens de Groot said: ''They were trying to kill us, ramming us like that in one of the most hostile environments in the world.''" The Sea Sheperds are taking matters into their own hands doing dangerous things in dangerous waters so they should expect something like this to happen. They should just lick their wounds and carry on. Whining is not inspiring.
you're the one who's whining...
Are you inspiring? Such a big butch Bookworm. From what I can see, the Sea Shepherds are going to carry on. They are a very determined group of people, intent on stopping savages from murdering and eating fellow intelligent beings.
What kind of sophomoric mentality are you shoving in our faces, BivBookWorm? I'm sure the Sea Shepherds are out there in a very dangerous situation putting their lives on the line for fellow creatures with big brains who have given every indication they are as smart as we are. I wonder who is courageous and who is not, big mouth.
My, my! I just offered some constructive criticism and here comes the rudeness and insults from those of the thin-skinned persuasion! Should've known...
Whales are intelligent as we are? Really? Then do you mind telling me when are they launching the first whale Mars probe?
I think you are not as intelligent as a whale. No offense!
You equate technology with intelligence, what a fool you are :(
This planet is in serious peril, caused by mans almighty intelligence. What takes nature millions of years, mans intelligence has managed to destroy in under a 100.
You can not touch a whale, all you can do is kill it, you sad excuse for a human being.
Andreas
Ady Gil had the right of way, they were to the starboard of the Japanese ship. The whaling ship has absolutely no justification in approaching such a smaller vessel that was stationary from that direction. They were, at the least, intending on hitting those crew with the water cannon, and at the worst, to flat-out sink them.
At least when Sea Shepherd rams a vessel we do so intentionally and take credit for it. And SSCS would never ram such a smaller vessel at such an extreme angle. It's amazing the Ady Gil didn't sink immediately.
The Japanese are not whaling because there's no other jobs for the whalers to do. They aren't whaling for sustenance. This is a commercial hunt done for political and economic purposes and it is long past time for it to stop. In Kenya they shoot elephant poachers. Sea Shepherd throws rotten butter at the Japanese and people call them pirates...
Sea Shepherd crew have, once again, showed that they are willing to put their lives on the line in order to save the whales. All my best to the crew and I wish I was out there with you. Hoka Hey.
"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow"
gnken
There should be a U.N. type of Fisheries enforcement operations shared by multi nations to keep the Japanese Whaling Operations honest, but because it is one nation there is no interest in other nations to enforce this.
It is difficult to know what is happening in these videos when there is nothing stationary to orient to. In the first video the trimaran seems to be under power, since there is some turbulence astern, but she is moving slowly, if at all. In the second, you can see the Japanese ship swerve to port, away from the trimaran, after the collision, but that might just be the skipper realizing he might have killed someone.
It does look to me like the trimaran is accelerating just before being struck, maybe the skipper was trying to get steerage, or maybe he goofed and should have gone into reverse?
Personally, I hope a board of inquiry holds the Japanese at fault. The right of way rules do not allow the privileged vessel to ram the burdened one, especially one that is not moving, since they cannot maneuver when not under way.
Sad, too, that such a cool boat was destroyed. Lucky nobody got killed, although the Japanese would have had a really hard time explaining THAT!
No modern country needs to eat whales these days. Perhaps a case of blubberitus will change their tastes.
I sometimes love being a contrarian, so here goes. Who gives the Sea Shephard the right to be in that area along with the Japanese? Are they given authority by the UN, or any other international group? Or as it seems, they are self appointed, sanctimonious vigilantes, playing chicken with much bigger boats. If the US Navy had any Iranian Navy vessal pull this type of SH**T, they would be blown out of the water. It's only a matter of time before these dangerous games of chicken get someone killed, and it won't be the Japanese. Remember, if the Japanese don't eat the whales, the killer whales will. If you good folks are going to save the whales then don't eat any type of sea food, or I'll start a campaign to save the mackeral, salmon, sharks, orange roughy, grouper, and tuna.
So why do you love being "a contrarian"? Is it to make a legitimate point? Because I'm not seeing it in yer post. Or is it a matter of principle? Or merely self indulgence? It certainly isn't much of an admirable trait from my perspective. Nor is it something to come off as proud of.
Every one of your points(?)can be easily rebuked or pointed out as being manipulative attempts to frame some sort of worthless debate. But why bother addressing them? You sound only interested in a reaction to your beloved contrariness. Not in real discussion. Not in real answers.
Please, Aarky, do start such a campaign. Then you would be doing something for the planet instead of getting your sad little ego in the way. You are a contrarian like the Japanese whalers are 'scientists'.
From both the whaler's video and the standing-off protest boat video, it certainly appears that the Japanese vessel did deliberately turn into the small vessel to ram it. As it was water-cannoning the small craft at the time, the ship was most certainly aware of the boat's presence and location. This is then a case of attempted murder on the high seas, and officially a most destructive Terrorist Act.
The protest boats are in the area to track the whalers because the "authorities" refuse to provide the Navy (police) vessels that should be there instead, in order to enforce the sanctioned areas agaist the well-documented whale-pirate ships. Ships that can be found by small craft and ordinary people.
If any factory fishing ships anywhere are discovered to be pirating the high seas of life, and refuse to Cease and Desist according to the global agreements against the strip-mining of ocean life and specifically against whaling, then Torpedoes would instead be the appropriate response to eliminate the poachers' presence, just as in Africa the poachers of preserves of protected land life must be and are shot dead. By the protectors of the animals.
These Sea-Pirates should not merely face the buzzing harrass of small boats, boats that can really only make a record of the manifold crimes of the Sea-Pirates against nature, crimes that are in fact High Crimes Against Life On Earth Itself.
Meanwhile, the many vessels of The People's Navy of the United States are over in the Gulf - themselves playing at being "self-appointed sanctimonious vigilantes", and "playing chicken" with entire nations. So what is so different about that?
And is it just the boat with the higher firepower to "blow them out of the water" or with the more destructive ramming capacity that prevails and rules the day then, is it? Then so much for ethics and morality. So much for defenseless animals. So much for the sanctity of and protection of life.
If it comes down to lawyers, guns and money... animals lose as they have none of those, nature loses as it has none of those- but then in the end humanity will lose, the greedy and the innocent alike, lose everything, lose the human species altogether. No future for You, nor yours. If Life on Earth loses.
For no matter how many lawyers, how many guns and how many dollars are available, in the end, nature just does not give a damn about any of these, that seem so very 'important' to humans. Unlike the American Congress, nature cannot be bribed or arm-twisted into compliance with the wishes of some greedy humans.
And by the way, the killer whales never decimated the whales during a period of time infinitely longer than homo sapiens has even walked the Earth. So don't worry about killer whales eating all the whales. Only humans can now do that, and now are so doing.
"Who gives the Sea Shephard the right to be in that area along with the Japanese? Are they given authority by the UN, or any other international group? Or as it seems, they are self appointed, sanctimonious vigilantes, playing chicken with much bigger boats."
Who gives the Japanese the right to be in that area along with the Sea Shepherd? Are they given authority by the UN (they aren't), or any other international group (they aren't)? Or as it seems, they are self appointed, sanctimonious vigilantes, attacking smaller boats?
"Remember, if the Japanese don't eat the whales, the killer whales will. If you good folks are going to save the whales then don't eat any type of sea food, or I'll start a campaign to save the mackeral, salmon, sharks, orange roughy, grouper, and tuna."
Yes. The killer whales will, but at nowhere the rate that humans do. Guess what happens to the killer whales if they kill all the whales? They run out of food. And it is a small minority of Japanese who eat the whales, so stop the pathetic attempt at arguing that anti-whaling is cultural imperialism against the Japanese.
And no I don't eat sea food or meat for that matter. Go and start your campaign, but I suspect you are just venting smelly hot air.
Aarky, there are non sequiturs and logical fallacies in your "contrarian" post.
Also, I expect more than a few on this board believe your threat to start a mackerel (what's a mackeral?) campaign lacks even the remotest conviction on your part.
I up you one, who gives the murdering Japanese whalers the right to be in the presents of the most majestic beings on our planet. Yes Aarky you are contrarian, in the same way lies contrast the truth. Now you just have to make a choice on which side you will build your house of Life on.
Everything in your brain and the Heart lagging somewhere behind :(
AML
Rules of the road cannot be ignored. Navigational law must apply in all situations at sea and it is never debatable.
The Ady Gil is the stand on vessel (approaching from the Starboard of the Shonan Maru. The Shonan Maru is the give way vessel (approaching from the port side of Ady Gil).
Both vessels are motor driven.
(As given by video evidence of 2 different angles of view)
The Ady Gil has the right of way in this instance. So the collision is clearly either a ramming situation or blatant failure to properly navigate by the Japanese. Either way, it is a serious offense by the Shonan Maru that should be dealt with harshly.
Deliberately cut in half just like PT 109.