Ady Gil (Earthrace) Sunk By Japanese Whalers

LOL, well that took all of a couple of weeks.

Hi,

Please tell me how anyone is really expected to believe that this ship: http://www.researchvessels.org/country/Japan/shonan_maru_2.html
was able to flash up it's main propulsion and accelerate to a rate that was sufficient to "slice" the other boat in half?

Has anyone seen these Sea Shephard shows on Discovery?

Interestingly the Discovery Channel broadcasts a disclaimer at the start of the show distancing itself from the carry on onboard.

I am sure a proper port state control including an inspection of the officers Certificates of Competency etc would certainly put a damper on their activities for a while at least.

Sea Shep

So does this mean you guys support these thugs killing whales!???

It's too bad such a nice boat won't sail forever.
But then again, who does?

I suspect that some just don't quite see how they cherish the memory of the said whales by trying to cause serious trouble in open sea to other people.

Bah, really a movie quotes rework day for me...

Whales

We throw away...each day more food scraps per capita in our "civilised world than can justify the murder of one of these creatures!

If Japan was a minor partner in any trading country, the world would have put a stop to this travesty.

Grow, change, have the courage to be in the NEW WORLD!

It was put in as a bit of a light hearted banter. I have deleted it so as to not cause the thread to run too far off course .

Trade Embargoes would do a lot more to get the correct attention than a lot of what is going on in the Southern Ocean right now.

With the amount of Japanese Money in Queensland and elsewhere in Australia/NZ this would not be an easy thing to achieve with a meaningful result.

Look at many boats and cars on the road today they all have a good portion of Japanese goods in them in one way or another.

It appears to me that the Japanese captain made deliberate course changes to collide with the Ady Gil. This video shows the incident from a different angle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rar9zxH1kts

No, it means if one is going to act as a combatant, one has to expect combat. Paul has been out there ramming vessels and sinking them for a long time, this time they got hit back. They were incompetent at what they tried to do and got smacked for it, they can't cry foul over this incident, it just rings hollow. I'm not for whaling, and I support their effort, but ****, you try and disable my vessel in the Southern Ocean, and it's me against you, I will do everything I can to take you out before you get me. Combat at sea typically involves vessels sinking. Take on a large powerful steel vessel with a small lightweight composite vessel, especially with minimally competent crew, and the results are, well, predictable.

He actually did a pretty good job. Lucky for the Ady Gil's crew the guy knew how to drive and didn't run the bow through the cockpit. He did pretty good just smacking the bow.

First off, I might be wrong on this one, but I have an impression that the ship this video is being taken from moves to the right (as we see). This naturally creates the effect of everything starting facting straight our face to "take the right turn". Plus again, Earthrace seems like it could be moving forward (e.g. to the right, same as the boat with the cameraman). And there aren't any fixed objects for us movie watchers to fast ourselves to.

My point is, the video is not very good at determining the degree it was actual maneuver of the whaler, the degree camera motion creates an illusion of right turn on his part, and the role of Ady's forward motion in it getting it bow whacked. Certain doubts here seem reasonable, especially considering we cannot actually rely on a cameraman being an objective neutral party.

And besides, it eludes my mind how a much faster and in all likehood more maneuvrable Earthrace could be *brutally rammed* without first putting itself into the position to be. Are they going to claim that they honestly and in good faith made all precautions on their side to avoid dangerous proximity and collision? Come on...

You consider that a "good job?"

A look from the whaler:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_KnBKriGog

Probably someone with better eyes and understanding then mine can get something from dead water seen in last shots...

Yep, he clipped the bow and sank a vessel trying to inflict potentially mortal damage to his vessel in the Southern Ocean putting his crew at risk(have no illusions that the Sea Sheppard Foundation acts within the limits of the law). He could have driven it straight through the cockpit and been legally exonerated. He was in tough conditions and handled his vessel precisely. So yeah, I consider it a good job. The guys on the toy boat should thank him for sparing their lives, although they probably talk the martyrdom game around the table, I doubt that everyone on that boat wanted to die just then.

Wow.

Good thing you're running boats far far away from me.

LOL, you fly the Jolly Roger at your own peril. I always find it funny when these groups get smacked and want to complain. My favorite was when Greenpeace ran an inflatable between a wharf and a big barge being landed, like it could stop. Those guys scrambled up on the wharf and 2 seconds later you see the blast from the inflatable popping. If you're gonna go out there and play, you gotta be ready to take your licks. Paul is, he always has been. He's nuts as well..., but hey, it's his mission in life and I wish him well at it as I did when I did some work on Sea Sheppard 1. It's not like I'm pro-whaling. I've met up with various of his crews over the years, and most of them have pretty much been idiots. They risk their lives for their cause and they know it. If you're gonna talk the talk and walk the walk, then you may very well die doing it.

You're only at risk if you threaten the well being of my vessel and crew. If you are a threat, yep, I'll come after you.