Ady Gil (Earthrace) Sunk By Japanese Whalers

They did.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6977316.ece

He knew where the Ady Gil was. The Shonan Maru 2 is not that big at 170' and 490 tons. It also has very low sides aft of the bridge making it easy to see a small vessel approaching right up until it was under the very high bow.

Whalers

HENNING & others: You say Sea Shepherd is breaking the law and are PIRATES. Consider this: The Japanes Whalers are BREAKING the law openly and with TOTAl disregard. They are criminals but too powerful for our lame politicians to take on!
You are quick to call others idiots. So often in History it is the people who stand up, often alone and to be ridiculed, who are later lauded as couragious people who changed our world for the better,e.g:
The first people who tagged & released Marlin.
Banning Great white and Nurse shark slaughter.
Protecting the Ozone layer by banning many everday chemicals.
Banning smoking in offices/restaurants.
Stood up for embargo against Aparthied S. Africa.
many many more examples
Beside their seamanship, these guys have GUTS!!! Yes Paul is over the top. But at least he is doing something more than collecting $$$ like Greenpeace. I have been to Japan a few times. They are good/bad people like all of us, BUT, they FOLLOW their leaders. Eat anything that moves, often still alive. Have you seen the dolphin slaughter? They call this "TRADITION" as if it legitimises this, but then so was beheading underlings for raising their eyes at nobles. This murder, cruel & slow must stop in this modern age.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not backing the whalers and as I said, I support Paul in his efforts. However, the Japanese are not breaking any law, as there is no Law for them to break. They are on the High Seas, they belong to no one and are only guarded by conventions to which nations are either signatory or not. It is up to those nations to write and enforce laws upon those vessels flying their flag. The Japanese are not signatory to these conventions, similar to how the US is not signatory to Kyoto, therefor Americans aren't subject to the international carbon taxing schemes. If they were actually breaking a law or even a convention to which they are signatory, then nations Navies could take this on, but they can't. There is no legal auspice under which to go after them which is why Paul says f- em I'll go after them as a pirate.

Someone mentioned "dramatic", yes, it is, and that's the point.

Actually the japanese are, at best, skirting the law. They are members of the International Whaling Commission and signatories to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The IWC issued a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. The IWC left open the right for some whaling to be conducted for research into whales for the purpose of furthering the species. This is why the japanese whalers prominently display the "RESEARCH" banners on the sides of their ships. When asked to stop or restrict their activities the japanese say, "So sorry, no can do". Everyone knows it's a commercial harvest but since the japanese maintain the subterfuge that it's for research it's alllowed to continue. Realistically there's no other option since the IWC has no enforcement capability.

Even though the japanese are in the wrong the actions of the Sea Shepherds are still criminal.

Criminals

Hi HENNING, good to hear again you don't support whaling!
The Japanese whalers are in the Southern Ocean "whale sanctuary", which falls in Australia's Antarctic Territory waters. They ARE in fact breaking the law, just justify it with BS "Research." Unfortunately Aus has a weak hypocrite environment minister.
If the Japanese decided to go crab fishing off Dutch Harbour, out of season, claiming it was for "research" how long would it take for you and others to sail north and ram the crap out of them?
I have an idea to slow these barbaric people down: harpoon the already dead whales with a mad cow serum, the Japanese are VERY touchy about this, ask the US beef produces how long it took to get their product back on the Japanese shelves.
Beside the sentimental side of this (Dolphins & whales) it is also the blatant lie of the whole issue. They BRIBE poorer members of the Whaling commission everytime there is an important vote. As you said K1WI and embargo is not practical (I drive a Toyota...ha!) and have a few big spending Japanese clients, but SHAME is an incredibly strong weapon on a proud people. We can deliver that in spades if there was a unified effort.

I would had almost believed what you had to say in your postings, but after a comment like this.. I question your credibility.

C4,

Kafue tends to be a little tongue-in-cheek. Don't harpoon him just yet.

Mad Cows and Bulls

Thanks Carl,
Anyone who took that Mad Cow Serum as serious believes the Bert 630 hit a whale!
I am serious about the barbarism of any group making a creature suffer unnecassarily, including Aussies who rip Joeys (baby Kangaroos) out of shot mothers pouches and batter them to death.
Paul Watson is EXTREME out of frustration at the legalities pointed out by "Time". The law is an ASS. BTW Time, thanks for the clarification.
Being right does not mean much in this world, ask any victim of Wall St. or the GFC! So people resort to anger and someone gets hurt. I go back to my first suggestion...SHAME the Japanese. They are (Generalisations are dangerous) on the whole an extremely polite, proud and sensitive people. But like all of us, force them and they will form a corral and defend themselves against the mass. The greatest attack on the whalers needs to come from the JAPANESE people. Paul, use your funds to Buy a few whaler ships and turn them into "Extreme Whale watching Expedition" ships from Japan.

Australia does not have the economic strength to take on Japan, and Japan knows it. It was funny, Kangaroo Island had a Koala population problem. The were going to cull them, but the Japanese told them "If you do, we'll boycott Australian tourism". So they had a multi million dollar project to catch female Koalas and sterilize them. The mistake was they should have offered hunting tags at $15k a piece. They would have sold all of the tags to the Japanese and made a million or two.

The problem I used to have with agressive protesters is that at some point, it becomes impossible to understand where they are better then the thing they claim to be against.

The Japanese fishing practices have sparked tensions many times (for example, it is an old known problem of russian waters at far east. there's been russian border patrol ships shooting, and stuff). But I guess there is a reason why civilisation widely abandoned an "eye for an eye" retribution logic in favor of more... sophisticated solutions. Now when people say and do, essentially, in the manner of "hey you are barbarians to whales, so we, self-proclaimed civilized people, are going to be barbarians to you", I cannot help but wonder if that is going to help or hurt the whole mess.

I would like to see whaling ended forever and I have no problem with consenting adults putting themselves in harms way to try to stop the trade. But if that is going to work, they have got to be more honest and transparent. Yes, shock publication has worked in the past, but not now, there are too many people willing to spend time and energy to find the truth – as we are doing here.

I’ve watched this quite a few times now and it seems to me that at the point of impact the whaler’s props have stopped and she is turning to port – which of course will be delayed by the lack of propulsion. The Ady Gil however, puts on a spurt of forward motion, placing herself in front of the whaler’s bow.

I have to admit that at a point before the impact, the whaler appears to move to starboard but that changes so quickly that I think it is simply wave action and the (probably deliberate) positioning of the camera.

Someone mentioned that the Ady Gil might be trying to force the ‘give way’ rule – but surely that would be negated by ‘might has right’ - especially in close quarter manoeuvring?

And how about them putting others in harms way, as can be seen on recordings of their earlier activities?

this might be sillier than the ''bouy theory''.....but could this collision be a planned photo op gone bad....

They were filming it from the MV Bob Barker so they must have expected something to happen. They were new to the boat and as others have pointed out they seem marginally competent at best so it seems like a strong possibility. Looking at the video as bizarre as it seems it almost looks to me like they rammed the Shonan Maru on purpose. Maybe they didn't understand how fragile their new toy was or maybe for some reason it wasn't living up to their expectations and they thought destroying it in a spectacular manner that would make the whalers look bad was the best way to get rid of it. When you're dealing with crazies sometimes it's hard to understand their motives.

You're not getting it, the entire operation was a photo op. Everything they do is about publicity. They know that is their most effective tool. It didn't go bad, it went as well as they could have hoped for. It gained publicity and nobody got killed. He drove that little light weight high power boat into that steel boat. Whether he did it on accident or purpose, the video clearly shows ahead thrust preceding and at the time of collision. The boat was free and of limited usefulness outside of its custom designed and built purpose. This event will probably have more impact on their goal than the vessel operating could.

But...but...carbon fiber is supposed to be stronger than steel...