Sea Shepherd Collision Video

The Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group's high-tech boat, the Ady Gil, was rammed by a Japanese whaling ship, the Shonan Maru No. 2, in early January 2010. Sea Shepherd is the group featured on the Animal Planet reality show Whale Wars.http://animal.discovery.com/tv/whale-wars/meet-the-crew/ The collision was captured on film from the vantage point of the Bob Barker ship, also owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The Japanese also released a video from their vantage point, on the Shonan Maru No. 2. The incident, on Tuesday, January 5, 2009, left the Ady Gil severely damaged and the six on-board had to be rescued by the Bob Barker.http://animal.discovery.com/tv/whale-wars/sea-shepherd/collision-at-sea-statement.html The collision occurred near the Commonwealth Bay of Antarctica.http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0106/Whale-Wars-The-aggressive-tactics-of-Sea-Shepherd-Paul-Watson

After the Sea Shepherd Collision, the organization released the video and claimed the Japanese ship deliberately destroyed the Ady Gil. In response, the spokesman from Tokyo's Institute of Cetacean Research, the group that operates the Japanese whaling fleet, said that the Shonan Maru No. 2 was protecting the other whaling ships from the Ady Gil. According to the spokesman, the Ady Gil was attempting to use ropes to disrupt the propellers of the ships. He said that in the video, the Ady Gil "puts the hammer down and full steams ahead and that's when the collision occured."http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1523750.php/Japan-whaling-group-protestors-trade-blame-after-collision The Japanese Fisheries Agency accused the Ady Gil of threatening "our country's whaling ships" and said the behavior was "totally unforgivable" and "extremely dangerous."http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/protest-ship-holed-in-whaling-clash-20100106-lty5.html

The Ady Gil was a sleek, black and futuristic looking boat that cost $1.8 to build. The boat measured 78-feet-long and was made of carbon-fiber. When it set out for Antarctica in December 2009, the skipper Peter Bethune told Reuters that the boat's mission was to protest against Japanese whaling ships. He said, "...you can't sit back and watch what they are doing, so hopefully we will find where the Japanese are and we can get on to them." He also explained that the Ady Gil was specially made so that it would be difficult for radars to detect, which would make it easier to for the ship to creep up on whaling ships undetected. Bethune told Reuters that they expected the Japanese whaling ships to put u a fight. One of the 'weapons' the Ady Gil planned on using was blasting a Maori chant called "Tangaroa" ("Guardian of the Sea") on loudspeakers to scare off the whalers.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34465379/ns/world_news-world_environment/