This reminds me of the “Cod wars” back in the seventies. A few days ago, a batman-like catamaran owned by the Sea Shepherd whale protection activists was rammed by a japanese ship escorting japanese trawlers hunting for whales for “research purposes”.
Thousands of stories on the net, here is one:
Rammed anti-whaling boat Ady Gil sinks off Antarctica
January 7, 2010 | 7:14 pmThe Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s anti-whaling interceptor boat Ady Gil sank in the icy waters off Antarctica today, two days after it was rammed by a 1,000-ton Japanese whaling vessel, a spokeswoman for the militant conservation group said.
The sleek, carbon-fiber speedboat, whose bow was sheared off in the collision, was being towed when ropes holding it in place behind a rescue ship snapped, possibly because it had taken on water, said spokeswoman Amy Baird.
“Fortunately, all fuel and lubricants had been removed from the Ady Gil hours earlier,” Baird said.
The Ady Gil’s six crew members were rescued after the collision by the crew of the Bob Barker, a former Norwegian whaler purchased and refitted with a $5-million donation to Sea Shepherd from television personality Bob Barker, host of TV’s “The Price Is Right” for 35 years.
The Ady Gil was purchased with a $1 million donation by Ady Gil of Woodland Hills, co-owner of American Hi Definition Inc., one of Hollywood’s leading providers of video production trucks, custom control rooms and camera systems to entertainment and corporate clients.
–Louis Sahagun
Here is a video on youtube with the ramming sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brw6JN0lQXY
What are your thoughts? Personally I think there is more than meets the eye and lots of economic interests involved.
Greetings BTW, my first post here. Alexander from Greece :dev2:
By: Arabella-Cox - 9th January 2010 at 19:40
If you read the skippers comments when they first acquired the former Earth Race vessel maybe this accident isn’t such a surprise after all.
None whatsoever. At least he has the guts to stand up for the poor whales. 😡
By: Olympus - 9th January 2010 at 18:36
If you read the skippers comments when they first acquired the former Earth Race vessel maybe this accident isn’t such a surprise after all.
By: J Boyle - 9th January 2010 at 18:23
Why didn’t the (presumably) faster catamaran simply get out of the way?
There seems to be more than enough blame here for both parties. I’m no maritime lawyer, but the catamaran shoudn’t have been in a position to get hit in the first place.
Like air operations, the sea is an unforgiving place…you don’t mess around in it for PR and political points.
If I were cynical…I’d suspect it was a set-up.
Lot’s of good press for the anti-whaling croud. The publicity alone more than makes up for the loss of the donated ship.
I’m looking for a new fund raising appeal comparing the anti-whaling group to JFK…seeing how they both had faster craft cut in two by slower Japanese ships.:D
By: Arabella-Cox - 8th January 2010 at 18:32
Seems to me like the japanese whaling boat was using the same non lethal defensive measures as boats at risk from pirates. The water canon and the ‘noise projecting’ devices, The japanese boat did seem to turn towards the protestors, whether it meant to ram them or just a misjudged scare tactic i don’t know, but it was dangerous and could have been deadly, and action needs to be taken/ I’m sure the sea shepard groups insurance company will want to, if no-one else!!!
In my opinion whaling is cruel, barbaric and horrible, but as long as there are loopholes in international law, nothing can be done, Didn’t the australian navy shadow the japanese whaling fleet a while back, would this have been done if they were still there?
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January 8, 2010 at 5:54 pm