Japanese Ship Shears Bow of Anti-Whaler Boat - Updated

(Sydney, Australia) Although Japanese whaling vessels and save-the-whale activists have been mixing it up for years, it's usually just harassment. Apparently, the situation is becoming more contentious.

A conservation group’s boat had its bow sheared off and was taking on water Wednesday after it collided with a Japanese whaling ship in the frigid waters of Antarctica, the group said. The boat’s six crew members were safely rescued.

The clash was apparently the most serious in the past several years, during which the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has sent vessels into far southern waters to try to harass the Japanese fleet into ceasing its annual whale cull.

Clashes using hand-thrown stink bombs, ropes meant to tangle propellers and high-tech sound equipment have been common in recent years, and collisions between ships have sometimes happened.

The society said its boat Ady Gil — a high tech speed boat that resembles a stealth bomber — was hit by the Japanese ship the Shonan Maru near Commonwealth Bay and had its bow sheared off.

“The condition of the Ady Gil now is that it is inoperable and the crew of the Ady Gil has been transferred to our other vessel, the Bob Barker,” Locky Maclean, the first mate of the society’s lead ship told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Heh.


[Update 1/7/10]

Here's a video of the incident.