"NEWS" ADY GIL Whale protest boat 'cut in half'

I hope this is in the right place.

Whale protest boat 'cut in half'

www.smh.com.au...

Story says one of the japanese boats rammed it!

Sad day for the whales.

I hope Peter Garrett steps in right now.

I was in the Navy, there were times we cut boats in half. We didn't want to, but when you're in the shipping lanes off the coast of France headed for the straights of Gibraltar in the pitch dark of night you can't see anything but the stars.

Sometimes at night you don't have time between the lookout warning and the event to turn even if you want to. I think sometimes that people on small boats think you can stop, but you really can't. Then it all is just a sad event and a log entry, but if we could have changed it we would have, but we couldn't.




[edit on 5-1-2010 by factbeforefiction]

I remember watching a series on (I think the Discovery Channel) an Anti-whale boat. The captain would use Zodiac Loot n Scoot boats, Propeller jamming float sum and stink bombs, against the Japs. He then pressured some of his own volunteer crew members to board the whalers. Now that went to far for me! Usurping your authority to brain wash young minds to perform illegal acts on the high seas. My impression...he was a total jerk. You mess with a samurai, you get whacked buy his sword. I do hope, however, that no one was injured. Two wrongs don't make a right.

If you think Peter Garrett is gonna do anything you'd be mistaken. He's been seriously neutralised by joining the Labor Party, & would have had much much more influence joining the Greens when he decided to enter politics.
Not only did he join a mainstream Party, he effectively left a generation of Midnight Oil fans scratching their heads in bewilderment at what the hell was happening here, & what were all those songs about, & all the protesting!

Peter garrett is nothing more than a giant mummy-headed joke these days. And thats from a Midnight Oil fan.........but no longer a Garrett fan. Sellout.


But I agree. Something needs to be done about one "boat" ramming another boat on purpose & effectively endangering the lives of everyone on board ( both boats ).
It IS time the Japanese looked at alternative options for food sources, & stopped bull#ting to us that they are whaling for "science". What the hell have they got left to learn from Whale Lips anyway? How many years & how many animals does it take to conduct a "scientific" experiment or analysis?

Might be time K.Rudd stopped sleeping with the Asians & started growing some balls. He can do it. He's good at screaming at Airline stewardesses, so how hard can it be for him?

reply to post by factbeforefiction

I was in the Navy, there were times we cut boats in half.
Sometimes at night you don't have time between the lookout
warning and the event to turn even if you want to.

My grandparents once sailed around the world in columbia 45 sailboat. Having pesonally known people who went out and "mysteriously disappeared" in US waters, they equipped their boat with a fantastic number of radar reflectors.

One night, while anchored, they were frantically hailed by a naval vessel and asked, basically "What the hell are you?!!?" Apparently they had so many reflectors that the according to the navigators, they looked like an island.

And yes, they did succeed in going around.

reply to post by SpinifexPrincess


Just on news Peter Garrett saying stay calm.

What really craps me off is that greenpeace and others have to make thaws kinds of stands against the whalers because it seems the gov is too concerned about stepping on toes.

reply to post by MissMegs

Content from external source:
ICR video footage shows the vessel stalking the Japanese ship, towing ropes from its stern.

Captain Watson said in November that the Ady Gil would be used to intercept the whaling fleet's chaser boats.

"What I think we can do is latch onto at least one of the three harpoon vessels and keep them out of the picture," he said.

Sounds like an act of piracy to me. Given that the infrared footage is clearly zoomed in on and tracking the vessel and you can clearly hear horns sounding, it's likely that the collission was deliberate. But if instead of ramming them they had fired guns and deliberately sunk them...could you really blame them?

Content from external source:
Captain Watson said in November that the Ady Gil would be used to intercept the whaling fleet's chaser boats.

"What I think we can do is latch onto at least one of the three harpoon vessels and keep them out of the picture," he said.

it was suddenly approached and rammed by the Japanese ship Shonan Maru, which has been detailed to provide security to the fleet, he said.

Imagine you're the captain of a security vessel, charged with the task of protecting a fleet, and a group of people who have publicly announced their intentions to disrupt your boats show up in the middle of the night in stealth boats with docking harnesses...what would you do?

How could you interpet their actions as anything other than attempted piracy?

The high-tech stealth boat Ady Gil was cut in half and sunk by a Japanese security vessel in Antarctic waters today, dramatically upping the stakes in the annual struggle between whalers and protesters

"This seriously escalates the whole situation," Captain Watson said of the collision.

The ICR said the Ady Gil came "within collision distance" directly in front of the Nisshin Maru bow and repeatedly deployed a rope from its stern "to entangle the Japanese vessel's rudder and propeller".

The statement accused the activists of shining a laser device at the Nisshin Maru crew and launching acid-filled projectiles, one of which landed on the vessel's deck.

The whale protest boat endangering sailors’ lives. They were perpetrating willful and malicious destruction of other individuals’ property on the open seas – otherwise referred to as “piracy”, “terrorism”, and/or “act of war”, depending on your point of view. they were engaging in heinously dangerous navigational methods,

I honestly do not give a tinker’s damn about there cause, or how important they believe it to be – what the whale protest boat was doing is wrong, and there is no changing that. If you have complaints over what certain individuals are doing, then take it up with their flagged country. However, the very second you start endangering the lives of sailors on the high seas, then you lose any semblance of whatever high ground you thought you had.

If i was the captain of a ship and someone tried that with me i would run them over too.
Then i would haul the people out of the water and turn them over to the coast guard for prosecution for endangering a vessel.

The japanese know there is no country that will back the actions of these anti whaling protesters or even try to prosecute the japanese captains.

I believe no country cares what happens to these anti whaling protesters as long as they break international laws of the seas with the publicity stunts.

reply to post by MissMegs

G'day MissMegs

Rudd is weak.

Garrett is weaker.

It's up to those guys down there to stop that appalling killing of whales.

More power to them

Regards
Maybe...maybe not

Here's a couple of pics I snapped when the Ady Gil was docked here in town just weeks ago being prepped for the 'mission'





I immediately got the feeling when taking those pics that the Japanese would simply run over it and guess what.

The whaling fleet in the supposed named of 'research' is disgusting to most Ozzies but we're not going to have any effect on their actions. It'll remain the same until the Japanese people get the picture and oppose it from within. As I understand it, there's only a very small minority of Japanese citizens interested in eating whale meat these days.

Not that we're totally innocent - whaling was a major industry in this part of the world up to about 100 years ago and we used to light our homes at night by burning whale oil prior to the introduction of reticulated electricity in the very early 1900s. Whaling boats used to dock right where the Ady Gil is in my pics back then.


[edit on 6/1/2010 by Pilgrum]

reply to post by Pilgrum

Here's a couple of pics

I notice they painted the jolly roger right onto the hull.

[edit on 6-1-2010 by jawsismyfish]

reply to post by LordBucket


I've got to admit i'm not well versed in maritime law but wouldn't flying a jolly roger and trying to intercept your vessel give enough cause to react with lethal force?

that being said i have two more statements.
1.nice boat(pre ramming)good job marine architect guy!
2.HAHAHAHA!!!!


[edit on 6-1-2010 by the_grand_pooh-bah]

These people are ridiculous.

How can anything they do save a whale? Nearest I can figure is that by "tainting the meat" with their stink bombs they just give the whalers a reason to kill another.

Looks like all they do is waste a lot of money, whine a whole bunch and put themselves in situations where they could be killed for absolutely no gain whatsoever.

Cute why is there no video of siking hippies ?

Those idiots should let the whalers do their job catching whales, and go home. Whales are no longer endangered and gives lots of oil and meat for people to live on.

Media whores sinking ... nice !!!!

Update on Ady Gil:

The Bat Boat broke.
Japanese sailors accused of ramming anti-whaling vessel with video.
and
Anti-whale vessel rammed



media.abovetopsecret.com...

Zelong.

[edit on 6/1/10 by Zelong]

Sea Shepherd and that Watson guy are a nusiance and in reality are nothing more than a eco-terrorism PR ploy. Having a crew member injured or killed would probably be something he'd secretly celebrate as it'd give him something big he could spin for his cause. Based on what I have seen on their reality show, they also have the maritime abilities of a handicapped desert nomad.

They deserved what they got, disabling a ship at sea, particularly in that part of the world represents a serious threat to the safety and well-being of all persons aboard. They should be held for piracy, and intent to destroy private property.

As for maritime law, it looks from the video that they entered into a situation where they imperiled themselves. By the letter of the law they were the privileged vessel but based on the size of the whaling vessel they should have changed course to avoid the collision; the whaling vessel is far less maneuverable. I'm sure though that despite a lot of posturing nobody will take action so it matters not.


The real upsetting thing is that events like this and the publicity that it and the TV show bring will continue to get uninformed and idiotic to donate to the cause. You can directly blame a long list including the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bob Barker for this idiot being able to fund this eco-terrorist cult. I'm not for whaling, but I do realize that the Japanese hunt is not going to endanger any of these whale species. I also realize that there are far more pressing problems facing the world's oceans, bluefin tuna are close to being categorized as endangered in the Atlantic, where is Watson to harass the pirate net fleets fishing out of North Africa? Anyone heard about the plastic island in the Pacific Gyre? Does Mr. Watson not see the same revenue generating publicity from cleaning up mid-ocean trash? I guess you can't get the hippie college kids to volunteer for your cult when you take these issues on.

And I love that dockside photo. If you needed any further evidence of these people having no respect for the ocean or it's power, note the waverunner on the back. All set for a nice romp in the frigid Antarctic waters. That would qualify for darwin award status if any of them is dumb enough to try it.

The thing is, that the Japanese are fishing in Australian Antartic Territory.

www.austlii.edu.au...

This is all about the international legalities and australian political aspects of the whaling. Big but interesting read.

And a quote from it: "It would also seem that, for now at least, a whale sanctuary is not a whale sanctuary if you are a Japanese whaling company."

And the Sea Shepherds biggest aim is to get in the way and cause distraction so the Japanese cant start whaling. Well it WAS before the termination of the Ady Gil.

Cheers

MM

How irresponsible the master of the Ady Gil was. :shk: The 'rules of the sea' dictate that if two vessels under power (different if one was under sail) are on an intercept course, the one to the port must give way. The Ady Gil was to port and also doesn't appear to have any running lights. That's another :shk:.

That's a great way to get people killed, including yourself.

I love whales and don't want them to get killed, but I can't condone that kind of idiocy.



[edit on 6-1-2010 by Duzey]

reply to post by Duzey


I don't think it's quite that clearcut because the Ady Gil was to starboard of the Japanese ship when struck and also it was stationary in the water when the whaler turned to port and aimed directly toward its cabin. The story from the survivors is that they managed to get the engines going and reverse just enough to avoid what would surely have been a multiple fatality. The most damning evidence against the Japanese ironically was filmed from onboard their own ship and posted on the internet - it was quickly pulled but not before being downloaded which is why we can all see for ourselves exactly what happened.

My initial feeling on seeing the Ady Gil in person was that the 'radar stealth' properties of the boat combined with the black colour and low profile could give the Japanese a reasonable excuse for running over it IE 'We didn't see it'. However, the video shows clearly that they were hitting it with water cannons before, during and after the collision so yep, they could see it.

I'm not condoning 'eco-terrorism' but the spectacularly short life of this boat has probably exceeded all expectations in raising international awareness of what's going on down there in antarctic waters. The sponsors who put up the 2 million to build it also would be getting more publicity than they reasonably have expected. The only people here getting unwelcome international attention are the Japanese whalers and that was the objective.

Ady Gil is now a martyr for the cause against commercial whaling, a powerful status indeed.