I think we already knew this. They rammed the fishing vessel on purpose for crying out loud.
I’ve watched several seasons of the show now. I’m not a fan of the Sea Shepard’s, and in fact do find them pretty inept most of the time.
However - I think there are few points that are indisputable concerning the sinking of the Andy Gil.
1) The entire crew of the Andy Gil was on the back portion of the ship when the collision occurred because they were out of gas. They were un-powered, so couldn’t move.
2) The Andy Gil was rammed by the Japanese vessel which was powered, i.e. could navigate and turn out of the way if the Japanese Captain had wanted too.
3) The Japanese vessel had been previously attacked by the Andy Gil with a Spud gun.
Conclusions I draw from this are that the Japanese vessel intentionally ran over them to destroy the ship. It was an opportunity to get revenge - and the Japanese did.
Now - the “intentional” sinking of the vessel has to be put into proper context. It was a floating hulk. You COULD call it a hazard to navigation possibly. It literally was cut in two by the collision.
Further - the guy making this statement is a wild-eyed fanatic (just like the rest of the Sea Shepard bunch..) with an axe to grind because his 2 million dollar baby got wiped out.
I don’t like the Sea Shepard operation - but then I don’t like the Japanese whaling either. This time - the Japanese are the blame. (Can’t say that often!)