Sea Shepherd Claims Unprovoked Attack by Japanese Whalers

'These harpoon ships came in heavy and hard'

Activists with the ocean conservationist group Sea Shepherd say their ship was attacked by Japanese whaling ships on the high seas in the Southern Ocean on Sunday, claiming the whalers deliberately collided with their ship amidst other attempts to damage the vessel.

The latest confrontation with Japanese whalers comes as Sea Shepherd continues its fight to protect endangered whales from what they call on an ongoing "slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans." The group often uses their ships to blockade vessels they consider to be illegally poaching whales in internationally protected waters.

The International Whaling Commission considers the Southern Ocean a sanctuary for the large mammals.

"The Sea Shepherd ships Steve Irwin and Bob Barker were both unprovokedly [sic] attacked by three harpoon ships belonging to the Japanese whale poaching fleet," Captain of the Bob Barker Peter Hammarstedt told Australia's ABC.

"These harpoon ships came in heavy and hard. They hit my bow with about 300 meters of steel cable with the express intent of causing damage to my rudder and propellers," Hammarstedt continued. "Thankfully because of a lot of evasive maneuvering I was able to avoid being entangled, but on one occasion one of the harpoon ships came so close that they ended up colliding with my vessel."

The group said their boat suffered damages during the attack, but no one was injured.

The Japanese government claimed that the collision was the fault of Sea Shepherd, and the Australian government announced Sunday that it will launch an investigation into the incident.

Watch footage of the collision released by Sea Shepherd:

Boat collision footage: Sea Shepherd ship rammed by Japanese whaling vesselSubscribe to ITN News: https://bit.ly/1bmWO8h Sea Shepherd Australia has released footage of one of its vessels being rammed by ...

Join Us: News for people demanding a better world


Common Dreams is powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place.

We're hundreds of thousands strong, but every single supporter makes the difference.

Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Join with us today!

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.