Crocodylus

Whaler, activist ship collide again off Antarctica

By ROHAN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer Rohan Sullivan, Associated Press Writer
Sat Feb 6, 9:35 am ET

SYDNEY – The anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided Saturday in the icy waters off Antarctica — the second major clash this year in the increasingly aggressive confrontations between conservationists and the whaling fleet.

No one was injured in the latest smash-up, for which each side blamed the other.

The U.S.-based activist group Sea Shepherd, which sends vessels to confront the Japanese fleet each year, said the Japanese ship deliberately rammed the Bob Barker — named after the U.S. game show host who donated millions to buy it for the anti-whaling group.

However, Japan's Fisheries Agency said the activist boat caused the collision by suddenly approaching the harpoon vessel No. 3 Yushin Maru to throw bottles containing butyric acid in an attempted attack on the Japanese ship.

The Japanese agency accused Sea Shepherd of "committing an act of sabotage" on the Japanese expedition, noting that it is allowed under world whaling restrictions as a scientific expedition. Conservationists call the annual hunt a cover for commercial whaling.

"We will not tolerate the dangerous activity that threatens Japanese whaling ships and endangers the lives of their crew members," it said in a statement late Saturday.

Neither side's account could be verified. Video shot from the Bob Barker and released by Sea Shepherd shows the two ships side by side moving quickly through the water. The ships come closer together and the Japanese ship then appears to turn away, but its stern swings sharply toward the Bob Barker. The collision is obscured by spray, but a loud clanging noise can be heard before the vessels separate.

Saturday's collision was the second this year between a Sea Shepherd boat and the Japanese fleet.

On Jan. 6, a Japanese whaler struck Sea Shepherd's high-tech speed boat Ady Gil and sheared off its nose. The Bob Barker then came to rescue the crew of the Ady Gil, which sank a day later.

Sea Shepherd and the whalers have faced off in Antarctic waters for the past few years over Japan's annual whale hunt, with each side accusing the other of acting in increasingly dangerous ways.

Sea Shepherd activists try to block the whalers from firing harpoons, and they dangle ropes in the water to try to snarl the Japanese ships' propellers. They also hurl packets of stinking rancid butter at their rivals. The whalers have responded by firing water cannons and sonar devices meant to disorient the activists. Collisions have occurred occasionally.

Japan aims to take hundreds of whales each year — mainly minke whales, which are not endangered — under a program that is allowed despite the international moratorium on killing whales because it is done in the name of science. Critics say the scientific program is a front for commercial whaling, and much of the meat is eaten.

On Saturday, the Bob Barker found the whaling fleet for the first time since the time of the Ady Gil clash, Watson said.

Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said by satellite telephone on Saturday that the Bob Barker took up a position behind the Nisshin Maru — the Japanese factory ship where dead whales are hauled aboard and butchered — so the four harpoon vessels could not reach it, he said.

"The harpoon ships started circling like sharks," Watson told The Associated Press from his ship, the Steve Irwin. "They were making near passes to the stern and the bow of the Bob Barker, then the Yushin Maru 3 intentionally rammed the Bob Barker."

The Bob Barker sustained a 3-ft. long, 4-inch wide (1-meter long, 10-centimeter) gash in its hull. Welders aboard the ship were already working on patching the hole, and the Bob Barker would resume its pursuit of the whalers, Watson said.

Watson said the Yushin Maru 3 appeared to stop moving after the collision and had not been seen by the Bob Barker's crew to have moved since, suggesting it also may have been damaged.

The Japanese fisheries statement said the Bob Barker caused the collision by coming in too close to throw butyric acid — smelly, rancid butter that spoils whale meat — onto the Japanese vessel. "The No. 3 Yushin Maru immediately moved away to avert a collision, but it was grazed in its tail area," the Fisheries Agency statement said.

The clash caused No. 3 Yushin Maru minor damage — its railing was slightly bent — but involved no injuries among crewmembers, the agency said.

The governments of Australia and New Zealand, which have responsibility for maritime rescue in the area where the hunt is usually conducted, say the fight between the two sides is becoming increasingly dangerous and have repeatedly urged them to tone it down.

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On the Net:

Video - Sea Shepherd

http://www.icrwhale.org/eng-index.htm

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Original article: Whaler, activist ship collide again off Antarctica - Yahoo! News

zraver

Go Sea Shepherds!

Notice the Japanese do not sound collision warning sirens (as they always do) and have no one spraying water. They pulled everyone inside when they set up the collision to avoid a man overboard situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9_6o...&feature=email

highsea

They probably brought the crew in to protect them. The Sea Shepherds are known to toss paint, chemicals, stink bombs, etc onto the decks of the ships they harass.

They should be charged with piracy, their ships siezed, and their crews jailed. They are an embarassment to the US.

zraver

They didn't sound collision warning sirens and they pulled everyone inside in direct opposition of what they normally do. This is on top of the ramming attack and attempted murder earlier. The Japanese fleet is the one that needs removal. if the various governments won't stand up to Japan and stop it, then it falls to the citizens to act. The Japanese are the pirates.

highsea

The japanese ship is under no obligation to sound any warnings when under attack, or to leave their crew in danger. They are conducting lawful commercial activities in International waters.

You advocate vigilatism in opposition to the rule of law. It is the Sea Shepherds who are violating International Maritime Law, and as a US flagged vessel, it is the US's responsibility to stop them.

They endanger lives- not just their own, but those on the ships they attack, and ultimately one of these days, the lives of the rescue divers and helo pilots that will have to venture out to save their asses when they sink their boat.

zraver

Hunting whales commercially is not legal. Nor do I accept that they were under attack, it looks lie they were the attacker, just like the Ady Gil.

highsea

The Sea Shepherds search these ships out to interfere with them. The Japanese vessel isn't the one who caused the collision. The story says the japanese ship turned away and it was the stern that collided.

In any case, it was the Sea Shepherds that put the vessels in proximity, something they do on a regular basis, as well as throwing paint, chemicals, etc. on the decks of the Japanese ships. All illegal under Maritime law.

The law says that what the Japanese were doing is legal. Simple as that, until someone proves otherwise.

The Captain of the Sea Shepherd boat is under obligation to follow all International Maritime laws as condition of his Coast Guard license. By intentionally placing his vessel and crew in danger, he is in violation of his license and it should be revoked.

I can't find the Bob Barker in the Coast Guard database, so it might not be US flagged, or it has a State registry.

zraver

it looks like the Japanese ship did a tail slide into the other vessel and there is no evidence it was under attacker. If you use the factory ship as the top of the triangle it looks liek the Japanese vessel is slicing in not the Sea Shepherds.

highsea

^^ Negative. The Japanese vessel was steaming straight ahead, and was overtaken on the port side by the Sea Shepherd boat. The Japanese vessel has right of way under International COLREG Rules- it's the overtaking vessel that is the burdened vessel. The Sea Shepherd boat was WAY too close, and the Japanese vessel attempted to turn away. The Sea Shepherds could have easily avoided the collision had they wanted to.

I understand you are opposed to whaling- to me that is not the issue. It's a matter of SOLAS and that takes precedence over everything else. People WILL die as a result of the Sea Shepherd's actions, it's only a matter of time.

I don't recall the UNSC resolution that appointed the Sea Shepherds as the International Police of the Oceans, but if they think the Japanese are whaling commercially there are legal venues to challenge them. As far as I know, the Japanese take those whales as are permitted to them by the IWC.

The Sea Shepherds are no different than the activists that go into the woods and spike trees hoping to injure a logger, or burn down sawmills. They think their cause is greater than the law, and they self-appoint themselves as the final arbiter of what's right and wrong. IOW, they are criminals.

highsea

Here's another youtube vid that shows the same maneuver from another collision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXQq7...eature=related

The Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin overtakes the same Japanese ship and turns directly into them, and then rides the side of the Japanese ship.

zraver

the Japanese shift was the overtaking vessel and it was travelling faster.


if the Japanese boat was traveling faster, and it appears it was its the overtaking vessel and it was way too close.

People are dying because of Japans actions.

The vast majority of the people represented under the nations party to the IWC oppose whaling, Japan has created for itself an exemption, it sets its own quotas in the quasi pursuit of junk science to justify its real purposes of commerical whaling and fishing in other peoples waters.

If all power descends from the consent of the governed, and the government won't respond to the will of the governed then law is meaningless. The criminals are the Japanese who are engaged in wholesale ocean borne biological piracy on a global scale. Piracy that has spawned armed piracy off the coast of Somalia.

Instead of viewing them as criminals, you should compare them to the Sons of Liberty. They seek no profit for themsevles, instead they oppose an unjust and immoral tyranny forced on people for the sake of a self serving nation thousands of miles from where the exploitation is occurring.

troung

All above board.

The Japanese are doing nothing illegal.

Fishing.

Wait what?

They are criminals. A bunch of wacko criminals.

Many nut jobs, and their supporters, like to believe that about themselves.

__________________
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

highsea

I was looking at the youtube link you posted, and it was completely clear that the Barker was the overtaking vessel. Remember, the viewpoint was from the side deck of the Barker adjacent to the wheelhouse.

Also, if you reference the ship in front, about ten seconds into the vid you can see it cross the camera view to the left. This shows that the Barker was making a right turn. If the Barker was going straight, the ship in front would stay stationary relative the Barker.

I have many thousands of ocean miles under my belt, and I can assure your that this is a technique well known to everyone who has ever navigated a boat in the ocean, and the #1 way to visually determine if you are on a collision course with another vessel.

The Barker is the faster and more maneuverable boat, the Japanese ship would just have sailed away from them if they could have. The Barker was forcing themselves alongside to toss their stink bombs.

Also, if the Japanese vessel had turned to port (as you seem to suggest it should have to avoid the collision), it would have put them right across the bow of the Barker. The collision was at the stern of the Japanese vessel, because the Japanese skipper tried to turn away when the Barker turned in.

Look at the link I posted. It's exactly the same maneuver the Barker was executing.
Who?
Then those people represented should complain to the IWC.

So Japanese whalers are responsible for Somali piracy? That's a completely bizarre conclusion.
ROFL. The Sea Shepherds NEED the Japanese whalers. It's their reason for existence. It's how they justify $5 Million chase boats.

Do you really think for one minute that they would just go home if the Japanese stopped whaling? Of course not. They would turn to the tuna fleet, the crab fleet, or whatever other target they could make an excuse for.

They're activists. That's what they do. They get their jollies imposing their will on others.

zraver

When a government does not respond to the majority but instead caters to a minority it is not above board.



yes they are, and not just with whaling, but also with Tuna and other fisheries stocks.

Theft



Do a bit of research on the link between Somali piracy and overfishing of Somali waters for Tuna to feed Japanese demands. The world is spending billions to put warships off the Somali coast but they are going after the wrong pirates.

That describes the Japanese- commercial whaling is illegal yet they do it anyway and cover it with junk science. Despite the fact that the appetite for whale in Japan being down the government continues to spend money outfitting the whaling fleets to pursue a create not a native target of traditional Japanese coastal whaling thousands of miles from its home. Japan continues to insist on using population figures now widely disproven to hunt a whale that has shed 50% of its population in 20 years.

At least Iceland has the balls to whale its own waters and not set off across the globe to hunt in a WHALE SANCTUARY


Follow the money, the good guys are usually the ones spending it to keep someone else from making it illicitly off of someone else. This isnt a case of someone tryign to tell Japan what to do in its own waters, but trying to stop Japan from doing what it will in others waters.

troung

Nopes. Strange argument.

Fruit cake terrorists and their wealthy supporters are attacking innocent fishermen. No attacks no money one assumes.

This is a case off a handful of wackos attempting to terrorize law abiding fishermen.

What they are doing is LEGAL, no theft.

The Japanese write papers, whale within their quota; they are breaking no laws. The minke population is not endangered. All on the up and up.

Yeah the Japanese Navy should deal with the Sea Shepard fruit cakes, who attack Japanese fishing ships.

They are not breaking any laws being there.

What!?!?!1 Where have you been? Furthermore the government of Japan is responding to their people and the IWC sanctions this; it all good.

You do not like them.
So you say.
Try them! Try them!
And you may.
Try them and you may, I say.