Activist on the Ady Gil aims a projectile launcher at a Japanese whaler
Posted on 01/06/2010 12:42:29 AM PST by bruinbirdman
Japanese whalers have sliced in half a high-tech anti-whaling boat in a dramatic escalation of the annual battle between the whaling fleet and environmental activists
Activist on the Ady Gil aims a projectile launcher at a Japanese whaler
The $1.5 million, 79 foot long 'stealth' boat Ady Gil sank after the attack in Southern Ocean but its six man cew was rescued uninjured, said Captain Paul Watson, founder of the radical environmental group Sea Shepherd.
Captain Watson said the Ady Gil, a light weight vessel that resembles Batman's spacecraft more than a conventional boat, was idling in waters near Commonwealth Bay in the Antarctic when it was suddenly rammed by the Japanese ship Shonan Maru, which was providing security to Japan's whaling fleet.
"This seriously escalates the whole situation," said Captain Watson. Speaking from on board the Steve Irwin mother-ship, which was 500 miles away from the collision, Captain Watson added: "According to the (Japanese) Institute of Cetacean Research, the Ady Gil's crew were launching projectiles at the Nisshin Maru and attempted to entangle its propellers with rope."
Australia director for Sea Shepherd Jeff Hansen said the Ady Gil was at a standstill when it was rammed..
"They (the crew) saw the Shonan Maru approaching and tried to back away but they couldn't get out of way in time and were T-boned by the Shonan," said Mr Hansen.
"The Shonan put a hole in the Ady Gil and the nose has clean broken off," he said.
Mr Hansen said the Ady Gil issued mayday call that was not answered by the Japanese whaling fleet. The crew were now on the fleet's third boat, the Bob Barker, he said, but wee unsure if the Ady Gil could be salvaged..
The Ady Gil, a biodiesel
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
If you’ve seen their show they have a complete lack of seamanship throughout the crew, especially in their leaders. So it’s more likely than not they screwed the pooch and got too close by accident. That said, they have a history of ramming the whaling boats and then claiming that they were the ones who were rammed. But as usual, they are caught as liars on tape.
Below 40 degrees south there is no law, below 50 degrees south there is no God.
The actions of these anti whaling people is extremely dangerous and just as bad as the Somali pirates. No matter how "noble" their intentions are their behavior is the same as a murderous gang.
The Southern ocean is a dangerous place and they have on more then one occasion put the lives of not only the crews of the whaling ships at risk but their own lives at risk with their idiotic antics. In those waters there is absolutely no hope of outside rescue* and I am sure those hippie fools would let the whaling crews freeze to death and drown if they could, that is why the Japanese have resorted to escort ships. Under international law the Japanese would have been within their rights to fire upon and sink the anti whaling ships because of the actions of those ships and their crews.
*There is no commercial shipping down there and by the time a Navy ship can get down there from Australia, New Zealand or South Africa the batteries on their emergency beacons would have run down and they would end up having to search hundreds of thousands of square miles of freezing waters with 50-100 foot waves, howling winds, etc. looking for tiny life rafts. Sinking there is pretty much a death sentence unless God is spending all of his time watching over you until someone plucks you out of the sea. If they do send a ship down there they also have to send a tanker because the Navy ships can not make it down there and back without refueling. If you wish to get a good idea of what being in those waters can be like pick up a copy of "Godforsaken Sea" by Derek Lundy- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565122291/photonetA
wow....uh, oh wow....wow man ! hahahahah , wow , uh....
uh oh ! um , did he hit it??? bummers !.....
typical doper observational commentary
I don’t know which side is dirtier. The Sea Shepards crew is a bunch of lefty do gooders trying to save whales. The Japs are pretty much nothing but greedy poachers. C’mon 900 whales in the name of reasearch!
Both sides are taking some serious risks trying to provoke the other side into a recorded incident that will cause the other guy to stop from public outcry. Thing is it’ll be one of the Sea Shepard crew that gets killed. The only question will be which side willl look dirtier in the footage.
You know, that would explain so much. WHen I worked at sea (biologist) I recall another land lubber asking the captain to thread his way through some drifting boats. He patiently replied “Teresa, this is ship, not a bicycle.’ She blushed as he explained that none of the route she proposed was at all feasible.
I never realized, until I read your post, that these people have no seamanship skills. Soooo...between all that money and self rightiousness, no one learned how to pilot a boat? And someone rich keeps handing boats to land lubbers? AND THEY COULDN’T FIND ONE SINGLE CAPTAIN TO PILOT THEIR BOAT? NOT ONE CAPTAIN BELIEVES IN THEIR GOALS, THEIR METHODS, THEIR MISSION. NOT EVEN FOR MONEY???
Maybe someone does.
No Retards For Whale$!
HUMAN HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE OF ORGANOCHLORINE AND MERCURY CONTAMINANTS IN JAPANESE WHALE MEAT
"The concentrations of total mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and organochlorine pesticides ( ΣDDT, dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene [HCB], and ΣHCH) were determined in 61 whale meat products (bacon, blubber, red meat, liver, intestine, and tongue) purchased from retail outlets across Japan. Mean (range) concentrations of contaminants in all samples were: total mercury 4.17 (0.01-204); ΣPCB 1.14 (0-8.94); ΣDDT 0.98 (0-7.46); dieldrin 0.07 (0-0.35); HCB 0.06 (0-0.22); and ΣHCH 0.07 (0-0.19) µg/g (wet weight). The data were used to calculate estimated daily intakes (EDIs) of contaminants at two hypothetical levels of whale meat consumption. These EDIs were compared with FAO/WHO "tolerable daily intake" (TDI) values for each chemical. EDIs calculated for higher levels of whale meat consumption were in some cases exceptionally high and for many products exceeded FAO/ WHO-TDIs for total mercury, PCBs, and dieldrin, with exceedance factor values (EDI/TDI) for total mercury, PCBs, and dieldrin reaching maxima of 175, 5.36, and 2.1, respectively."
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a713853239
S’what happens when chimps try to pilot whale fluke looking boats.
All in all, a nice Wednesday feel-good!
Which totally explains why the average Japanese person lives longer than the global average and their economy is collapsing from having to support all those octagenarians!
I stand with the whalers. Anybody that stands against the environazis is my friend.
Good!
“It broke the world record for circumnavigating the globe in a motorized boat.”
But it isn’t fast enough to get out of the way of a ship 4 times it size?
I’m guessing the Japensese didn’t see it. It was a “stealth boat” after all.
What total bullcrap.
Watch the video at the top story link. The small agile eco-weenie boat tried to “cut off” the much larger and less maneuverable ship, and misjudged - and continued under power right into the ship.
The ship (from the video provided in post 7) is clearly attempting to avoid the smaller eco-weenie boat cutting in front of it.
The smaller eco-weenie boat was not “cut in half” - the bow was smashed in because they appear to have RAMMED the ship. Under full power it would seem.
Nobody owns those whales. The Japanese aren’t ‘poachers’ - they’re hunters.
The Japanese don’t tell us what meat we’re allowed to eat:- let’s try returning the favor. I hope those whales taste good, and I hope the Japanese keep whaling for a thousand years.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!
Suck on that you ecoterrorist scum!
Hopefully there will be more Japanese captains courageous enough to fight back against that filth and send paul watson and his criminal cartel to the graves they have so richly earned.
"The point I would make is that the risk of accident is high and the capacity for rescue in these areas is low and it is absolutely critical that restraint be prudently exercised by all parties.
There you have it. A call for restraint to be exercised by all parties, the criminal and the law-abiding alike.
When you are dealing with terrorists intent on disrupting your life, restraint is the last course you should follow. If you restrain yourself, the terrorists will have won, because you will be doing their job for them.
Rather, the proper course is to be unrestrained in your resistance to terrorism, and aggressive in your countermeasures. Let the asymetrical nature of the relationship work for you, not against you. A 300-foot whaler ramming a 79-foot speedboat would be a good example of a positive use of bulk.
If the enviroweenies want to reduce the violence, they should get the hell out of the way.
wow - that green lazer hurt my eyes and it was just a tape!
I generally mistrust techno-jargon unless I have enough information to verify it. Particularly in a heated discussion of something like whaling or global warming.
Well perhaps I was a bit hasty in my previous post.
Reviewing the video at post 7 again, it looks like the collision was mutual.
The small far more maneuverable “stealth” boat is seen off the starboard bow of the faster larger Japanese ship, which is approaching the camera. As the ship nears the smaller eco-weenie boat which seems to have been cutting it off - the weight of the larger ship can be seen shifting (centrifical force?) to the right in the video - port side of the approaching ship. That would seem to indicate the ship was indeed turning sharply to starboard toward the boat at the time.
So the sequence seems to have been - rather like a volkswagen beetle deliberately cutting off a semi truck, then the semi truck swerving to tear off the front bumper of the volkwagen beetle in anger.
Neither side is an innocent “victim” in this, it would seem.
Yep...and everyone who has watched Whale Wars also knows that the Sea Shepherds provoke and attack...then when they get their butts handed to them...they LIE.
Just like when they tried to ram the Japanese ship on last season...then got tangled up....then called the press and said "look what they did to us."
I love that show...proves beyond a doubt what morons liberals really are: Filled with good intentions but not a lick of common sense. Watson follows Alinsky's rules for radicals to the LETTER!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.