Whaling crash - Japanese point of view

Thank you Andrew for your response. You are clearly an expert in your field...your grammar, logic and knowlege of where whalers place their spears in whales are all beyond question.

If u noticed an increase in boat wash jst b4 impact aswell.but weather or not there was an increase in thrust 2 secs dones not make a difference, the whalers vessel wouldhave still hit the ady gil ship. then also for the whaling vessel still to squirt the ady gil members after they have hit the boat shows that they ment to do it. The NZ and Australian Govt need to step in and control the antartic waters instead of it being international waters then they would be able to stop the idiot Japs from coming in and taking food home.cos thats all they are doing ,theres no research being done at all. And bruce that made a comment before, i hope you come back in your nxt life as a whale and you get a spare up yr arse see how you like it

AndrewR - I have navigated a vessel - in fact I was a navigator for 6 years in the Australian Navy, with considerable experience in close quarters manoevring. While I dont support whaling, I would suggest the Ady Gil certainly contributed substantially to the collision. There does appear clear evidence (change in prop wash) of accelerating from idle to ensure a collision occured. Note also that the Japanese ship alters course to port at the last moment in an atttempt to minimise/avoid damage. I did not see any action to avoid collision by Ady Gil. I refer you to Rule 17b of the international navigation rules. And incidentally your reference to lat long as "something to consider" while in close proximity in the Southern Ocean...good try but you are really clutching at straws on that one.

Honestly Maurice/Simon? Have you ever navigated a vessel? Nonetheless been on one? There is much more than just "full power" when you're controlling a ship that size, especially in the ocean. Weather, swells, longitude, latitude, you have much to consider. The Shepherds are known to perform risky maneuvers while the Japanese fishermen are infamous with their aggression towards radical activists.

In my opinion I think it was probably a accident caused by pushing the limits to far. but the only likely outcome is further escalation.

Watch the wake at the stern of the Ady Gil, it tells the whole story. The Ady Gil was sit stationary or moving forward very slowly then full power under the bow.

This crash seems to be Ady Gil's fault. The Whalers would never intentionally crash others as they would never want any sort of publicity. The only side that wants publicity is Sea Shepperd. It is also shown previously that Sea Shepperd will achieve that by ANY MEANS.

John get your facts straight first. Sea Shepard is not park of green peace. To be honest Prefer them more to green peace who sit around and do nothing.

Thanks Ross. I too come from several generations of seafarers. Poor seamanship is poor seamnship regardless of who commits it. I personally think the Ady Gil was at fault this time. Armadeus, what value lines? I simply watched th footage totally objectively. Had it shown me another conclusion, I would have been equally blunt in my condemnation. I despise these whalers and the so-called "research", but as a seaman, I despise more, people who appear to deliberately cause a maritime incident, and then bleat on about the justness of their own cause and how they've been hard-done-by. They need to Grow up!

Looks to me like the Japanese rammed the Ady Gil - and not the other way round. Looking at the wake, the Ady Gil was hardly moving at all - and certainly was NOT trying to cut in front of the Japanese boat.