Sea Sheperd's ship, Bob Baker, rammed by whaler

[onestepforward]

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-100206-1.html

At 1209 PM Fremantle, Australia time, the Yushin Maru 3 intentionally rammed the Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker, penetrating it's hull and endangering the lives of it¹s crew.
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The Bob Barker had been actively blocking the slipway of the Nisshin Maru, the Japanese whaling fleet’s factory ship when the collision occurred. Four harpoon ships, the Yushin Maru 1, 2, and 3 and Shonan Maru 2, were circling and making near passes to the stern and bow of the Sea Shepherd vessel. The Bob Barker did not move from its position. At which point, the Yushin Maru 3 intentionally rammed the Bob Barker, creating a 3-foot long 4-inch deep gash in the mid starboard side of the Sea Shepherd vessel above the waterline.

No crew was injured during the collision. The Bob Barker continues to block the slipway of the Nisshin Maru, preventing the transfer of slaughtered whales and effectively shutting down illegal whaling operations.
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The crew of the Bob Barker noticed that the Yushin Maru 3 stopped moving in the water shortly after the impact, and appeared to be falling behind as the Bob Barker maintained its position on the stern of the Nisshin Maru. It’s possible the Yushin Maru 3 damaged itself in the collision.
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Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9_6oTZ_fgs

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. this happened like forever ago.

Sea Sheppard is pretty dumb to try and block traffic of LARGE ships with a small speedboat.
They should really get a cheaper bigger boat.

[aikoaiko]

3. I think this is a different incident and even more ambiguous

based on my viewing of the video.

[Duckhunter935]

7. I agree, need to see more angles. No agenda from the film crew.

[nashville_brook]

4. you're thinking of the Earthrace. the Bob Barker is a whole different ship.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

16. Correcr, my bad.

[aikoaiko]

2. Its hard to understand the Sea Shepherd's indignation.

If you're going to ram ships in the open seas, you really can't expect those you ram to care about you if you get in the way or too close.

Sea Shepherd rams Japanese whaling ship about a year ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXQq78lvKrU

[Duckhunter935]

5. Sea shepard never does wrong, we all know that

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Robb]

6. Meh. nt

[SidDithers]

17. Exactly...

If you're gonna play chicken in big boats, don't whine when a collision happens.

Sid

[Coyote_Bandit]

8. If ya play with fire sometimes ya get burned

All these Sea Shepherd asshats are doing is playing a game of chicken on the high seas.

It unnecessarily puts life and property at risk and ought to be criminalized.

IMHO it is a form of terrorism - the use or threat of violence as a politically motivated means of coercion.

No pity for the Sea Shepherd here. No respect either.

[BeFree]

10. You don't understand?

The Sea Sheperd is going to economically destroy the Japanese whaling industry.

The whales, and most humans, will be better off when it's done.

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. The ends

do not always justify the means. Whaling is abhorent. So too are the violent methods of the Sea Shepherd.

[petronius]

32. Isn't the Japanese whaling industry already economically destroyed?

It seems to require substantial government subsidies to stay afloat - and I'd guess that indignation at the SS is part of what keeps those subsidies flowing...

[tavalon]

11. Luckily for everyone like you, there's one like me

And I send them money.

[Coyote_Bandit]

13. It's your money but I do wonder if

have you sent an equal sum to groups that provide health care for ***PEOPLE*** who cannot otherwise afford it? Have you undertaken violence to insure their right to life?

[GliderGuider]

15. Well, I for one support (morally and financially) both SSCS and MSF.

I'm in full support of the ends and the means of both groups.

[onestepforward]

31. Me too.

:hi:

[AllenVanAllen]

20. Every seal, shark, dolphin, and whale the SSCS

rescues makes a difference to those animals and to us. Our oceans are being destroyed at an alarming rate. We'll be in a world of trouble if the our ocean's ecosystems die. The SSCS do their part to conserve the oceans by whatever means they can. We all benefit from healthy living oceans. They aren't just our personal feeding trough and dumping ground.
The question should be, what can we do to save our oceans? We're nearing a tipping point. We all have to do our part or pay the price.

[jmowreader]

23. Exactly how many whales has SSCS actually "rescued"?

This incident happened while Bob Barker was attempting to block the transfer of a load of killed minkes to the Japanese factory ship. Hmm...if the SSCS was "effective," would there have been a load of dead whales to transfer to the Japanese floating abattoir?

[tavalon]

27. Doctors Without Borders

Yes, I do. I hold humans and whales at about the same level of respect. I don't support the killing of humans or cetaceans.

[Doremus]

25. As do I and many more like us. n/t

[slackmaster]

14. Here we go again...

I haven't looked at the video yet, and I encourage everyone to read these simple rules before doing so:

http://www.boatingsafety.com/colregs.htm - Note especially the consistent message that all parties are responsible for collision avoidance at all times.

Also, try to keep in mind that perspectives looking at one object in motion at sea from another object in motion can be confusing, and that videos can easily be shot and edited in ways intended to manipulate the perception of people who are not familiar with the rules or dynamics of travel at sea.

Bear in mind that the party that presents the video always has an axe to grind. From the perspective of the other party, a video may lead naive viewers to a different conclusion.

[Catshrink]

18. Rachel had Bob Barker on after the ship was named.

Wow! What a guy he is - so dedicated to animal welfare. It was a great story.

Here's the link to the video:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#34738854

[AllenVanAllen]

30. Talk about leaving a legacy to be proud of! n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. Of all the crummy luck.

Who would think that in such a huge ocean, the Sea Shepherd boats would collide so frequently? You'd think the whaling ships are are only there to run into 'em.

:sarcasm: 'cuz it's the law.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Violence Escalates in Southern Ocean Whaling Battle

Violence Escalates in Southern Ocean Whaling Battle

SOUTHERN OCEAN, February 6, 2010 (ENS) - The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says the Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru 3 "intentionally rammed" its anti-whaling ship Bob Barker just after noon local time today, gashing its hull and endangering the lives of its crew.

The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research, ICR, says the Bob Barker was the ship that did the ramming while the Yushin Maru 3 was trying to avoid a collison.

180 miles off Cape Darnley in the Australian Antarctic Territory, some 4,500 kilometers from Fremantle, Australia. No crew was injured during the collision.

In the Southern Ocean on its mission to shut down Japanese so-called research whaling, the Sea Shepherd vessel had been blocking the slipway of the whaling fleet�s factory ship Nisshin Maru, preventing the transfer of slaughtered whales onto the factory ship when the collision occured.

The Sea Shepherd says four harpoon ships, the Yushin Maru 1, 2, and 3 and Shonan Maru 2, were circling and making near passes to the stern and bow of the Bob Barker, which continued to block the slipway.

At this point, "the Yushin Maru 3 intentionally rammed the Bob Barker, creating a 3-foot long 4-inch deep gash in the mid-starboard side of the Sea Shepherd vessel above the waterline."

The Bob Barker continues to block the slipway of the Nisshin Maru and Captain Chuck Swift says he intends to stay in this position off the stern of the Nisshin Maru until the whalers return to Japan or until they run out of fuel.

More:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2010/2010-02-06-01.html

[jmowreader]

22. Don't you mean "Japanese whaler rammed by Sea Shepherd"?

We went through this shit over and over after the Ady Gil incident. IIRC all the pro-Sea Shepherd people claimed the Japanese whaler, being on the port side, was the give-way vessel and Ady Gil was the stand-to vessel. In this incident, Bob Barker was the give-way vessel. And that Japanese whaler looks like she's turning to starboard--AWAY from Paul Watson's pirate ship.

This incident is CLEARLY Sea Shepherd's fault. Were I a betting man I would put $100 on the Bob Barker's captain not retaining his license after the investigation into this one is over.

Eventually the Sea Shepherd people are going to piss off the wrong guy and wind up getting a harpoon launched into the wheelhouse of one of their ships, or someone's going to invest in some torpedoes and antiship missiles...

[spiritual_gunfighter]

24. I bet you cant wait for that n/t

[Doremus]

26. Utter BS. n/t

[jmowreader]

28. Watch that video again and tell me it's utter BS.

Because...well, you know, harassing a ship full of dead whales shows how effective you are at stopping the Japanese from killing whales.

[AllenVanAllen]

29. "harassing a ship full of dead whales shows how effective you are "

They try to protect the whales if they can, but if they can't, they don't want the whalers to profit either.
They only have a small window of time to transfer slain whales for processing before they begin to rot and the kill becomes a a total loss. Each whale is worth a significant amount of money to the whalers. Each year the SSCS have hit them with higher and higher losses. The SSCS is trying to hurt the whalers the only way it can, economically. A few more years of this and the Japanese whaling industry will go "belly-up."

The SSCS is doing their part to save our oceans from dying.
Now what are we going to do to keep this from happening?

[proteus_lives]

34. How much will you dance when they kill someone?

[AllenVanAllen]

35. Dancing? What makes you think I would rejoice in anyone's death?

If somebody does die it probably won't be one of the whalers. You're forgetting who is "David" and who's "Goliath."

[proteus_lives]

36. Someone will die during one of SS's foolish stunts.

And they the organization will die under lawsuits and scandal.

David and Goliath? Don't make me laugh. You credit little pirates and fishermen with too much.

[AllenVanAllen]

37. You can speculate and you can hope.

But the work to conserve the natural world will go on.
Listen, I have a question for you. What are you doing to mitigate the destruction of our oceans?

[proteus_lives]

38. Probably the same as SS.

Virtually nothing.

But I don't have a reality show so you won't be starstruck by me.

[AllenVanAllen]

39. "Virtually nothing."

That's too bad. I make no excuses for being starstruck by our natural world.
To me it's worth fighting for...

[jmowreader]

43. The question is, what are YOU doing?

I tell people to avoid eating grouper, cod, Chilean Sea Bass, imported shrimp, farmed salmon, trawled haddock, orange roughy and swordfish. Those are some of the worst fisheries in terms of depletion or environmental damage. There are a LOT of fish you can eat without damaging the fishery.

Aiding and abetting Paul the Pirate does nothing but piss off the Japanese and, possibly, induce them to continue whaling just to spite him.

[AllenVanAllen]

44. What do I do? Let's see,

I use natural cleaning products and natural fertilizer to prevent adding to the toxic run-off that ends up in our waterways and oceans. I avoid pouring anything toxic down my drains like drain-cleaner. I recycle plastics (and don't buy a lot of plastic crap to begin with.) I don't eat fish and limit meat eating in general. I don't eat factory farmed pork which is a huge consumer of fish products. I work from home and my home is powered by green wind energy as to not add to the CO2 to in the atmosphere which is also raising the temps of the oceans. I also give to conservation organizations that work hands-on all over the world. I try to advocate for the environment when I can. I write our lawmakers and leaders to push them to action. There's a lot one person can do we're not helpless in the matter.

[jmowreader]

45. It sounds like you do a LOT of really substantive things

Your just not pouring toxics down the drain will do more, I would say, to save the oceans than supporting Paul the Pirate in his quest to perpetuate whaling.

[AllenVanAllen]

47. I guess we can agree to disagree about the SSCS.

:hi:

[Chef Eric]

42. And how much will you dance when the whales are extinct? nt

[jmowreader]

40. Does anyone know the difference between IUCN and CITES?

I looked up the Minke whale, which is the whale every active whaling nation hunts. It comes in two subspecies, common minke (northern minke) and antarctic minke (southern minke).

Every group that monitors whale populations agrees there are about 103,000 common minkes.

There are arguments about the Antarctic minke population--estimates range from 760,000 (IWC numbers, which the Japanese use) to 338,000 (2003 IWC figures). And now the IWC admits they don't know how many Antarctic minkes there really are.

Anyway, the International Conservation Union (IUCN) rates the northern minkes as Least Concern species and the southern ones as Data Deficient, while the CITES people list both in Appendix I, or Threatened. (They are on the list because of issues with their food supply, not because of the number of whales.)

I also note Watson doesn't harass the Icelandic and Norwegian whalers anymore--probably because they won't put up with his shit any more. And when OTHER anti-whaling groups are against you? Canadian intelligence has already declared Paul Watson to be a terrorist. The Japanese say he is, and with some of his actions--there's a good YouTube video of one of Watson's ships attempting to capsize a Japanese whaler by ramming it, and his other attacks will eventually have the result of having Sea Shepherd declared as pirates. (There's a YouTube video showing the crew of Ady Gil ordering a Japanese whaler to stop, presumably for boarding. Pirates do that.) As such they can be captured on the high seas and tried as criminals, they can be shot on sight and their ships can be sunk. Perhaps they should take a lesson from Earth First!--the group that did the ecoterrorism in the western forests. They got a lot farther in their efforts to fight corporate loggers like Maxxam when they renounced tree spiking.

The Japanese, Norwegian and Icelandic whale harvest levels are probably sustainable...shit like overfishing, high-power sonar and industrial waste are more damaging to the oceans than the taking of whales at rates below their reproductive rate. (Minkes breed about as fast as dolphins.)

[Merchant Marine]

33. It's pretty clear that the SSCS is at fault in this collision

Yushin Maru had the right of way.

The "ramming" (I use quotes because ramming implies intent, this shows only incompetence) occurs as the Bob Barker overtakes on the port side of the Yushin Maru and crowds her. The Yushin Maru turns hard to starboard to avoid a collision, which would work if the Barker had gone hard to port to also avoid. But they don't, and the two ships "slap" together hard on both vessel's beams. You can see the Bob Barker start to come to port a few seconds before the collision, but she has crowded the Yushin Maru too much and is inside her turning circle. Too little, too late. This looks, much like the Ady Gil collision, to be an attempt at harassment that crossed the line into collision due to inexperience and poor seamanship.

Landlubbers may say "Ah, but the Yushin Maru swung her stern into the Bob Barker!" To which I say, read about ship-handling and collision avoidance. ALWAYS go right in traffic. If you're in the path of part of a ship trying to evade you, that is your fault, especially when you're the give-way vessel. No maritime court will EVER fault a skipper for ordering right full rudder and astern bells in extremis, as it appears the Yushin Maru's master did.

People will continue to interpret this the way their allegiance dictates, as happened with the collision earlier this year. However, in my professional opinion (Such as it is) I think that the SSCS is once again at fault for causing a dangerous collision in hazardous waters.

[jmowreader]

41. Give me a bit of your professional opinion here

Does it seem to you like the Sea Shepherd people know how to drive ships on the high seas?

I really wonder about those guys. I watched that video and note the Bob Barker is on an intersecting course with the Japanese whaler. Does that make any sense to anyone?

Here's the Japanese statement: http://www.icrwhale.org/pdf/100206ReleaseYM.pdf

"On the early morning of February 6 the Bob Barker appeared in the vicinity of the whale research mother ship Nisshin Maru approaching dangerously from the stern up to a few dozen meters. The Bob Barker had been repeatedly firing a high-power green laser device against the Nisshin Maru crew until well past 1200JST.

"Thereafter the Yushin Maru No. 3 and other research vessels maneuvered to contain the Bob Barker and thus secure a safe distance between the Nisshin Maru and the antiwhaling ship. However, the Bob Barker suddenly approached from the Yushin Maru No. 3 port side launching a number of butyric acid-containing bottles and other projectiles. To avoid a collision the Yushin Maru No. 3 put hard to starboard but the Bob Barker starboard came into contact with the port stern of the research vessel. The Yushin Maru suffered minor damage to its hand rail and hull. The Bob Barker damage extent is unknown.

"After ramming the Yushin Maru No. 3, the Bob Barker activists made use of a large slingshot device to shoot a number of butyric acid-containing bottles against the Shonan Maru No. 2. While most of the projectiles landed in the sea, about 10 butyric-acid bottles hit the Shonan Maru No. 2’s deck. There were no injuries to the crews of the Japanese whale research vessels."

Also check http://www.icrwhale.org/eng/100206SS2.wmv and http://www.icrwhale.org/eng/100206SS.wmv.

[flvegan]

46. They got away with trying to kill the crew of the Ady Gil.

Why would the whalers stop now?