Interesting how the different videos give such different perspectives- in some it appears certain that the Shonan Maru rammed the Ady Gil, in others quite the opposite.

perhaps it was all just revenge for the countless whalling ships sunk by sea shepherd

YouTube - Sea Shepherd

I am sorry I don`t have a link to the Japanese video - I have seen it about 50 times on television news though.

I personally disagree with whaling, but I don`t particularly feel that people need to DIE over this - a sentiment that clearly differs from that of Sea Shepard. They have stated MANY times that they think the whalers should die, their ships should sink, etc etc. There is a REASON there was a defense ship out there to begin with - Sea Shepard is little above a pirating operation. There are lots of things that I disagree with in this world, but attacking people who go against that is no way to actually forward those beliefs.

I also am familiar with ships. My husband`s family has a whole fleet. If the ships are moving, it IS the responsibility of the smaller ship to move out of the way. If the smaller ship is CAPABLE of moving out of the way, it is still responsible as depending on the conditions it can be much harder for the larger ship to see the smaller with enough time left to change course not to hit it.

It is being said in here that it could not see the approaching ship due to the water cannons. If it was close enough to be hit by the cannons, THAT alone is a huge issue. They don`t reach that far. They`re basically a final resort to keep a ship away - not something you shoot from far away to incapacitate another ship. It`s basically an anti-boarding device to stop people from hopping over to the other ship. You`d think if they were close enough to be hit by the cannon they`d have NOTICED the other ship bearing down on them.

If Sea Shepard had been a perfectly peaceful group up until this point, maybe I would be willing to question my own judgement looking at the video - but nope. Just because they want to say "We were rammed! It`s all those crazy whalers` fault!!", I`m not going to doubt the opinion of family who have been fishing for 30+ years. The smaller ship basically put itself into the path of a larger ship that didn`t have the time or space to get out of the way. Whether that was deliberate or just pure stupidity / inexperience... That is the part that I would like to know the answer to.

Your other post was removed and you were pmed about it.

This is not a war. These are not enemies attacking a country. Human lives are not at stake here. Fishermen do not deserve to die or lose property for doing the job they are being paid to do. It`s fine to disagree with whaling - but go after those who permit it, at the top.

You were right about one thing though - that sort of action would be pure terrorism. Attacking and driving fear into the hearts of people who are doing something you disagree with.

ETA; And... your edit earned you a ban.

What the hell was Ady Gill doing there so close in the first place?

again sorta not
 

for all you 'JF wanna-be skippers' there is no 'turning left' or 'turning right' when it comes to boats? Left is known as 'port' and your right side is known as the 'starboard side'.

As for those who argue about 'piracy'-
International Laws and Charters Sea Shepherd campaigns are guided by the United Nations World Charter for Nature. Sections 21-24 of the Charter provides authority to individuals to act on behalf of and enforce international conservation laws.
Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas.

Article 101 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: “Piracy consists of . . . any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or private aircraft and directed: (i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft.

NO ONE has ever been seriously hurt, nor killed, by sea shepherd. Ever. In their entire more than 30+ year history of operations! The Sea Sheppard has a clean marinetime record and the captain Paul Watson ( masters lic.) over 30yrs is also clean marinetime record.

for the record-
The Japanese through maritime ineptitude set their *own* ship on fire! (previously, in the antarctic). In another episode, the Japanese accidentally set off explosives on their own ship. Unlike Sea Shepherd ships which are Un-Armed, the Japanese vessels carry explosives, and they accidentally set some off and killed one of their own Japanese citizen.

That was previously, and in 2008' the Japanese lost a man overboard! So the Japanese are not only responsible for killing tens of thousands of whales illegally, and endangering more, the japanese are responsible for multiple loss of human life. And mind you, these they all did themselves. Sea Shepherd was no where near them when they did it.

-In another instance, the Japanese whaling fleet crippled one of their own vessels. It began to list. And it threatened to spill and leak thousands of gallons of fuel into New Zealand’s territorial waters, tainting a huge area of pristine antarctic ocean. New Zealand’s prime minister refused the japanese whaling fleet entry into new zealand port.

Sea Shepherd is the ONLY group actually taking action against Japans ILLEGAL whaling. Japanese whaling was found illegal in the Australian Federal courts and Sea Shepherd is enforcing that ruling. Australia can lawfully stop whaling within its Antarctic territory-Sea Shepherd also upholds the UN charter on wildlife.


Seamanship -Sea Shepherd versus Japans Whalers
Among above mentioned illegal acts Japanese whalers documented while throwing projectiles at Sea Shepherd crewmembers, hitting crewmembers with high powered water hoses, deploying fouling lines to damage ship’s propeller, using an acoustic weapon device against Sea Shepherd crewmembers and its helicopter while it was in the air.

I think this is the essential question.

I disagree with your assessment here. Basically you are saying that if whales get wiped off the face of the planet in a horrible manner thats no problem as long as no humans are hurt?! At some point the majority of humans will get on the same page about this issue. And it WILL be in favor of the whales. And people who think like you will be the first to go.

That's not what she is saying at all. WhoIsDaffy's posts were deleted, but he was advocating for the military destruction of the whaling ships and those aboard. Nyororin's point is, since the the whaler's are not engaging in acts that kill people, a terrorist strategy to kill and destroy isn't justifiable.

Oh. Sorry. I still think that at some point in the future (maybe beyond my lifetime) it may come to that though. A couple of generations from now the President might not even be elected without promising conservation of near extinct species.