Author: earthfirst

6.1.2010
Ear­ly this morn­ing the Japan­ese whale killing ship Shonan Maru2 rammed and destroyed the Sea Shep­herd protest ves­sel the Ady Gil. It was a mir­a­cle no Sea Shep­herd crew were killed or seri­ous­ly injured.

From Sea Shep­herd CEO Steve Roest.
I was wok­en at 4am GMT to hear that the Japan­ese whaler and secu­ri­ty ves­sel Shonan Maru2 had delib­er­ate­ly rammed the small Sea Shep­herd inter­cept ves­sel Ady Gil. The Ady Gil had lost the front 3 metres of her nose com­plete­ly and it is a mir­a­cle nobody was seri­ous­ly injured or killed.

Cap­tain Wat­son has made the fol­low­ing state­ment to the press:

In an unpro­voked attack cap­tured on film, the Japan­ese secu­ri­ty ship Shonan Maru #2 delib­er­ate­ly rammed and caused cat­a­stroph­ic dam­age to the Sea Shep­herd ves­sel Ady Gil.

Six crew crewmem­bers, four from New Zealand, one from Aus­tralia and one from the Nether­lands were imme­di­ate­ly res­cued by the crew of the Sea Shep­herd ship Bob Bark­er. None of the crew Ady Gil crew were injured.

The Ady Gil is believed to be sink­ing and chances of sal­vage are very grim.

Accord­ing to eye­wit­ness Cap­tain Chuck Swift on the Bob Bark­er, the attack hap­pened while the ves­sels were dead in the water. The Shonan Maru #2 sud­den­ly start­ed up and delib­er­ate­ly rammed the Ady Gil rip­ping eight feet of the bow of the ves­sel com­plete­ly off. Accord­ing to Cap­tain Swift, the ves­sel does not look like it will be saved.

“The Japan­ese whalers have now esca­lat­ed this con­flict very vio­lent­ly.” Said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son. “If they think that our remain­ing two ships will retreat from the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary in the face of their extrem­ism, they will be mis­tak­en. We now have a real whale war on our hands and we have no inten­tion of retreat­ing.”

Cap­tain Paul Wat­son onboard the Steve Irwin is rac­ing towards the area at 16 knots but still remains some five hun­dred miles to the north. The Bob Bark­er will has tem­porar­i­ly stop the pur­suit of the Nis­shin Maru to res­cue the crew of the Ady Gil. The Japan­ese ships refused to acknowl­edge the May Day dis­tress of the Ady Gil and used the inci­dent to break away from the scene of the ram­ming.

The inci­dent took place at 64 Degrees and 03 Min­utes South and 143 Degrees and 09 Min­utes East

Until this morn­ing the Japan­ese were com­plete­ly unaware of the exis­tence of the Bob Bark­er. This newest addi­tion to the Sea Shep­herd fleet left Mau­ri­tius off the coast of Africa on Decem­ber 18th and was able to advance along the ice edge from the West as the Japan­ese were busy wor­ry­ing about the advance of the Steve Irwin from the North.

“This is a sub­stan­tial loss for our orga­ni­za­tion,” said Cap­tain Wat­son. “The Ady Gil, the for­mer Earth­race ves­sel, rep­re­sents a loss of almost two mil­lion dol­lars. How­ev­er the loss of a sin­gle whale is of more impor­tance to us and we will not lose the Ady Gil in vain. This blow sim­ply strength­ens our resolve, it does not weak­en our spir­it.”

The Sea Shep­herd Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety is request­ing that the Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment send a naval ves­sel to restore the peace in the waters of the Aus­tralian Antarc­tic Ter­ri­to­ry. We have 77 crew from 16 nations on three ves­sels, 6 of them were on the Ady Gil. Of these 21 are Aus­tralian cit­i­zens. 16 Aus­tralians on the Steve Irwin and 5 on the Bob Bark­er. Sea Shep­herd believes that the Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment has a respon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect the lives of Aus­tralian cit­i­zens work­ing to defend whales from ille­gal Japan­ese whal­ing activ­i­ties.

“Aus­tralia needs to send a naval ves­sel down here as soon as pos­si­ble to pro­tect both the whales and the Aus­tralian cit­i­zens work­ing to defend these whales.” Said Steve Irwin Chief Cook Lau­ra Dakin of Can­ber­ra. “This is Aus­tralian Antarc­tic Ter­ri­to­r­i­al waters and I see the Japan­ese whalers doing what­ev­er they want with impuni­ty down here with­out a sin­gle Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment ves­sel any­where to be found. Peter Gar­rett, I have one ques­tion for you. Where the bloody hell are you?”

http://www.seashepherd.org

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Sea Shep­herd vows to con­tin­ue cam­paign after whalers destroy Ady Gil

Yes­ter­day was a hec­tic day in Com­mon­wealth Bay, near Antarc­ti­ca, in the South­ern Ocean Whale Sanc­tu­ary. The Ady Gil, while sta­tion­ary, was pupose­ful­ly rammed at speed by the Japan­ese whal­ing secu­ri­ty ves­sel, the Shonan Maru 2. And the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet, and the world dis­cov­ered Sea Shep­herds sur­prise new con­ser­va­tion ship, the Bob Bak­er, an ex-Nor­we­gian Antarc­tic ice-class whal­ing ves­sel that was bought in 2009 and secret­ly refit­ted in South Africa.

In the Antarc­tic ear­ly morn­ing twi­light at 0300 Hours, 6 Jan­u­ary, the Bob Bak­er found the Nis­shin Maru and her four har­poon ves­sels. The Japan­ese whal­ing oper­a­tion had been caught unawares. They had been focussing on the loca­tion of the Steve Irwin, pay­ing New Zealan­der Glenn Inwood’s Ome­ka Pub­lic Rela­tions com­pa­ny to hire char­ter flights first in Albany, and then in Mel­bourne and Hobart to locate and fol­low the Steve Irwin.

The ‘spy flights’ from Albany were able to direct the Shonan Maru 2 to shad­ow the Steve Irwin when it left Fre­man­tle so that the main whal­ing fleet could avoid a con­flict and do their whale slaugh­ter in peace. The stra­e­gy worked for two weeks, until the Steve Irwin returned to Hobart to refu­el and repro­vi­sion. Leav­ing Hobart on New Years Eve, the Steve Irwin was able to slip past under­cov­er of a thun­der­storm. The spy flights from Mel­bourne and Hobart organ­ised by Glenn Inwood, esti­mat­ed to cost about $18,000, could not locate the Steve Irwin due to the low cloud cov­er.

The Sea Shep­herd also had some unex­pect­ed assis­tance depart­ing Hobart from six peo­ple on a small motor­boat, self iden­ti­fied as ‘Taz Patrol’, who patrolled the perime­ter of the Aus­tralian Eco­nom­ic Exclu­sion Zone (EEZ) locat­ing the Yushin Maru and twit­ter­ing it’s loca­tion to the world (and Sea Shep­herd).

So with the whal­ing fleet locat­ed, New Zealand skip­per of the Ady Gil, Pete Bethune, drove his power­boat around the Nis­shan Maru whal­ing fac­to­ry ship, attempt­ing to foul the fac­to­ry ship’s pro­pel­lors. Evi­dent­ly only one bauble of rot­ten but­ter reached the deck of the Nis­shan Maru, but the green laser pho­ton­ic dis­rupters were also used. In return the Nis­shan Maru fired up its LRAD acoustic weapon and used its water can­non. Stale­mate.

So the Ady Gil retreats with the Nis­shan Maru flee­ing. Sea Shep­herd’s new ves­sel the Bob Bak­er pre­pares to chase the Nis­shan Maru and the fleet, while most of the Ady Gil crew sit on the roof with the ves­sel in a sta­tion­ary idle. The videos show the Japan­ese har­poon ves­sel, the Shonan Maru 2 charg­ing the Ady Gil with water canons blaz­ing. Peter Bethune tells his crew to pre­pare for a drench­ing, lit­tle real­iz­ing the dan­ger he and his crew were fac­ing. While the water can­non sprays the roof of the Ady Gil blind­ing the crew, the Shonan Maru turns sharply to star­board right at the Ady Gil. In the few moments before impact Peter Bethune guns the Ady Gil, but it is far too late with Shonan Maru 2 slic­ing 2 metres off the bow of the Ady Gil, forc­ing the power­boat momen­tar­i­ly under­wa­ter and immers­ing the crew in the icy waters hold­ing on to the roof for their lives.

Even after impact and seper­a­tion of the ships, the Shonan Maru 2 con­tin­ues to pound the bedrag­gled crew hang­ing on to the top of the Ady Gil with water canon blasts.

Video: Japan­ese Whalers film Ady Gil being rammed by Shonan Maru 2

Video: Ady Gil rammed by Shonan Maru 2 filmed by Sea Shep­herd from Bob Bark­er

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Rammed Ves­sel Ady Gil Sinks

Sea Shep­herd Resumes Pur­suit of Ille­gal Whalers

On Jan­u­ary 8, 2010 at 17:20 (GMT) the Sea Shep­herd Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety ves­sel Bob Bark­er report­ed the last known posi­tion of anoth­er Sea Shep­herd ves­sel, the Ady Gil, to the Aus­tralian Res­cue Coor­di­na­tion Cen­ter (ARCC). This report was made because the Ady Gil—which was orig­i­nal­ly going to be towed to a near­by base—is now sink­ing and could pose a nav­i­ga­tion haz­ard for the next two to three hours.

Hav­ing bare­ly sur­vived a vicious attack by the ille­gal Japan­ese whal­ing ves­sel Shonan Maru No. 2 on Jan­u­ary 6, 2010, the Ady Gil began tak­ing on water. Since that time, Bob Bark­er crew mem­bers have been work­ing around the clock in an attempt to save the ship and remove pos­si­ble envi­ron­men­tal haz­ards in case the ves­sel had fur­ther com­pli­ca­tions while being towed.

The first clash between whalers and whale defend­ers took place on Decem­ber 14th when the Steve Irwin and the Shonan Maru #2 exchanged shots with their water can­nons.

The Shonan Maru #2 has been fol­low­ing the Steve Irwin from Fre­man­tle since Decem­ber 9th. At 1400 Hours (Mel­bourne time) the Steve Irwin went around an ice­berg, did a fig­ure eight out of view of the Shonan Maru #2 and re-emerged with­in a quar­ter of a mile of the Japan­ese whaler’s port­side quar­ter catch­ing the whalers com­plete­ly by sur­prise.

A pur­suit began and the Shonan Maru #2 turned on two water can­nons. The crew of the Steve Irwin imme­di­ate­ly respond­ed by plac­ing their water can­non in readi­ness. The Shonan Maru #2 and the Steve Irwin were engaged in a high speed pur­suit for two hours before Cap­tain Wat­son decid­ed to break off the pur­suit to resume course to the coast of Antarc­ti­ca.

The Japan­ese whalers are spend­ing a great deal of mon­ey, first locat­ing the Steve Irwin by air and then direct­ing the Shonan Maru #2 to the coor­di­nates of the Sea Shep­herd ves­sel. By stay­ing on the tail of the Steve Irwin, the har­poon ves­sel is able to keep the rest of the fleet aware of the Sea Shep­herd posi­tion. Cap­tain Paul Wat­son needs to lose the tail of the Shonan Maru #2 in order to locate the whal­ing fleet. He is count­ing on heav­ier ice con­di­tions to assist in this effort.

“We will use the ice­bergs and the ice floes to our advan­tage.” Said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son. “I’ve observed today that I am a more expe­ri­enced ice nav­i­ga­tor than the Japan­ese cap­tain chas­ing us. We need to get him to fol­low us into the ice fields and let the ice work for us.”

The Steve Irwin crew were left wet, but in good spir­its after the con­fronta­tion.

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Sea Shep­herd Evades Pur­suit by Japan­ese Whal­ing Fleet Secu­ri­ty Ves­sel

The Sea Shep­herd ship Steve Irwin has suc­cess­ful­ly left the Aus­tralian Eco­nom­ic Zone (EEZ) with­out any sign of the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet secu­ri­ty ship Shonan Maru No. 2.

The Steve Irwin depart­ed from Hobart at 1800 Hours on Decem­ber 31st and took advan­tage of gale force winds and heavy swells to slip past the wait­ing Japan­ese ves­sel.

“It’s a big ocean down here they have no idea where we are,” said Cap­tain Paul Wat­son. “I’m now con­fi­dent that we can pro­ceed with our search for the Japan­ese whal­ing fleet with­out fur­ther inter­fer­ence from the Shonan Maru No. 2.”

The Sea Shep­herd ves­sel Ady Gil is patrolling the South­ern Ocean in advance of the Steve Irwin in search of the fleet.

The Shonan Maru No. 2 was wait­ing for the Steve Irwin when it left Fre­man­tle on Decem­ber 7th. The Japan­ese had char­tered an air­craft out of Albany to locate the con­ser­va­tion ves­sel. They then relayed the Steve Irwin’s posi­tion to the Shonan Maru No. 2 to enable the Japan­ese secu­ri­ty ves­sel to inter­cept the Steve Irwin.

The Steve Irwin was unable to lose the pur­suit of the Shonan Maru No. 2 for more than two weeks. Only by return­ing to Tas­ma­nia was the tail lost because Japan­ese whal­ing ships are pro­hib­it­ed from enter­ing Aus­tralian ter­ri­to­r­i­al waters.

“Thanks to the stormy weath­er, there was no pos­si­bil­i­ty of a char­tered flight locat­ing the Steve Irwin and we were able to pass back into inter­na­tion­al waters with­out any sign of the Shonan Maru No. 2,” said Cap­tain Wat­son. “They will be hard pressed to locate us now and with­out them on our tail, I am con­fi­dent that we will be able to track down the whale poach­ers in the Aus­tralian Antarc­tic Ter­ri­to­ry.”
“It was awe­some see­ing them run like cow­ards when we turned on them,” said Third Mate Vin­cent Hayes from Williamstown in Vic­to­ria.