Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Boat is Sinking...

[Dain Arns]

Anyone heard from Wombat666???
Wasn't he on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's new boat?

Doesn't look good for the boat, but crew was rescued ... :kilroy:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34569925/ns/world_news/

[Quixoticish]

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

Why that's a really constructive way to try to solve the problem. Idiots. :banghead:

[CG_1976]

Here is further info right from there site

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 Japanese Whalers Ram Sea Shepherd Ship Ady Gil

Famed Catamaran is sinking in the Southern Ocean
Six crewmembers Rescued by the Sea Shepherd Ship Bob Barker
In an unprovoked attack captured on film, the Japanese security ship Shonan Maru No. 2 deliberately rammed and caused catastrophic damage to the Sea Shepherd catamaran 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 No. 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 now 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 has temporarily stopped the pursuit of the Nisshin Maru to rescue the crew of the Ady Gil. The Japanese ships initially refused to acknowledge the May Day distress of the Ady Gil, but ultimately did acknowledge the call. Despite acknowledging the call, they did not offer to assist the Ady Gil or the Bob Barker in any way.

[tigisfat]

I don't know if he said he was on it, I thought he was just a supporter.

[Lionheart]

They are safe.

Man, that was a nice ship. Hard to believe its gone. I hope they make some more of that thing.


Bill

[Dain Arns]

I don't know if he said he was on it, I thought he was just a supporter.

Okay. It was late when I came across the news report and noticed he hasn't posted since Christmas Eve.
I probably misunderstood that when he posted info on that boat a couple months ago.

[Z-claudius24]

Hi,

See the video.
Don't seen any deliberate attack from the japanese ship.
He was sailing on a straight course and the other small boat take a collision course and cut the way of the japanese ship.
They must have misscomputed the speed of the fishing boat !
Toughs of a merchant navy officer :)

[Dain Arns]

I don't really care who is right or wrong in this incident, we have another forum place set aside to discuss that.
The concern here is about the possible whereabouts and well being of one of our own members of the SOH community.

So let's keep it that way, please. :wavey:

[Toastmaker]

I remember his post about this boat. There was nothing in it about Wombat becomming part of the crew.

[Dain Arns]

Thanks for the information, Toastmaker. I appreciate it.

Since the crew was successfully rescued and it looks like Wombat isn't there anyway, I think it would be safe to close this thread. Thanks.

[Cratermaker]

Looks like its top speed is considerably less than 46 mph now.

[Lionheart]

Is it possible to keep the thread open to find out the details of the crash?


Bill

[Railrunner130]

That definately was a cool boat.

[Willy]

Wombat is okay. He has posted in the staff forum.

[Slug Flyer]

What a waste of a really cool boat.

[Bjoern]

http://i49.tinypic.com/2rzqck2.jpg

Photographed by me in Oslo during its 2007 record attempt.

Sad to see this otherwise cool thing being misused for such actions. I hope my dad's employer doesn't sponsor the boat and owner anymore, unlike during the record attempt.

[Lionheart]

Wombat is okay. He has posted in the staff forum.

Thanks Willy.



Bill

[Lionheart]

On the above photo, I see now (I think) what those fins are on the top. Those appear to actually be stacks for the engines. I had thought they were Batman type rudders that were either for looks or cutting through the huge waves out at sea.

What a radical design. I hope they get a fleet of those things going.



Bill

[Blackbird686]

What a waste of a really cool boat.

YEP -- THAT DOES IT! I'm loading up my trusty ol' surplus P-3C Orion with giant plastic bags full of "buteric acid" and I'm going hunting for the Nissin Maru. lol!!:p:

BB686:USA-flag:

[stiz]

JtMN6IzbRMY

well to me looks like the sea sheperd lot got infront of the boat, which tried to evade, if you notice it turns away from the Ady and clips the front. I think they should count themselfs lucky the japense are only useing water cannons, turn the situation round, with americans waleing and japense protesting, the japs would be blown out of the water with full force :monkies:

[Blackbird686]

Looks like they yanked the viddy, Stiz -- It's no longer available.

Hmmm....:kilroy:

BB686:USA-flag:

[stiz]

hmmm still working for me, heres the direct link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtMN6IzbRMY

[Wing_Z]

Oh dear, Kiwis everywhere...the boat, the crew, now this:

A Wellington-based PR firm has hired aircraft to track the anti-whaling protest vessels. They aren't saying, but on their client list is the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research (=whaling fleet).
Oops.
Further, the aircraft are Australian-based, and took off from Australian airports.
Oops again, Oz is wildly anti-whaling.

What a waste of a beautiful boat.
Sooner or later someone other than whales is going to get badly hurt.

[TARPSBird]

The vid's still watchable here as part of the CNN news story:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/01/06/lah.japan.whaling.ship.collision.cnn
Stiz, I can't address US civilian ships but I can tell you that when US Navy ships are involved in any altercations with GreenPeace or other eco-activist protestors we take great care to insure nobody gets hurt. On one occasion my ship was attempting to tie up in Palma de Mallorca, Spain and two GreenPeace folks in a rubber boat positioned themselves between us and the quay wall as the tug was moving us in. Very dangerous move, our ship shifts a bit and they're crushed along with their boat. We stood off a safe distance until the Spanish port police moved in and arrested them. No 5" or .50 cal rounds expended, and no water cannon. ;)

[TheOptimist]

They deserve it for all I care.

I love watching the show, it's just an hour of watching the dumbest bunch of people you'll ever see. Paul Watson must employ a screening program whereby he filters out all of the people with common sense and instead just hires complete morons. Their cause is worthwhile but they might actually get somewhere if they didn't have the collective intelligence of a cucumber.

To suggest that the Japanese rammed the Ady Gil is absolute rubbish, from all video accounts it's pitifully obvious Yushin held it's course and the crew of the Gil were just hopeless.

Even if the Yushin did make some attempt to hit the Ady, why did it not just move? It's comparable to flying along in a Cessna 150, spotting a 747 on a collision course and thinking 'ah, never mind.'

[Lionheart]

Amazing...

From what I just watched on the footage, a very large ship appears to lean to the left as it is turning into a ship, rams it, and is then leaning to the right turning out of it.

A moron can see that the bigger ship 'turned' into the smaller ship, rammed it, and veared away.

I am greatful to have seen the footage.

It also looks like the Adi tried gunning it to get out of the path and by then it was too late. At the same time, they were being sprayed by water jets, so how could they see what was suddenly happening.



Fighting to save intelligent life isnt stupid or funny... Not in my book.



Bill

[TheOptimist]

Amazing...

From what I just watched on the footage, a very large ship appears to lean to the left as it is turning into a ship, rams it, and is then leaning to the right turning out of it.

A moron can see that the bigger ship 'turned' into the smaller ship, rammed it, and veared away.

I am greatful to have seen the footage.

It also looks like the Adi tried gunning it to get out of the path and by then it was too late. At the same time, they were being sprayed by water jets, so how could they see what was suddenly happening.


Fighting to save intelligent life isnt stupid or funny... Not in my book.


Bill

To be honest, there's too much controversy over who was at fault over the incident, even on professional boating forums, so there's absolutely no point getting into a debate over that.

However, even if the Japanese ship did intentionally ram the Ady, I could not care less. These idiots antagonise the Japanese day in day out, not to mention 'Captain' Paul Watson (hahaha) is currently under investigation for ramming a japanese vessel a while back.

The small boats spend their time as close as possible to the ships, hurling bottles of buteric acid etc, then when it all goes wrong they go crying back to the media. They played chicken with an ice-rated vessel and lost. Cretins.

There's a good reason Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd have been denounced by Greenpeace. What exactly are they achieving, except strengthening the resolve of the whalers?

One more thing, do you know what they intended to do with the Ady? They intended to cut in front of the harpoon vessel when it was chasing a whale. That's right - purposefully getting in the way of a loaded harpoon.

I can't even recount most incidents of stupidity on behalf of the crew. How about when the sea shepherds small boats lost contact in horrific weather, with no radio transmissions or radar imaging? The 'first officer' just sat there like a complete tool. It took an engineer to step in and take authority to detail a search pattern. Even better when the boat was found they reprimanded the engineer and DEMOTED him. Or how about the same 'first officer' telling the crew that they didn't need a checklist for the boats, they should just go on instinct (in an environment where survival suits and equipment are 100% neccessary). I could go on for hours.

We'll forget that the Ady has reverse gears, and here is a good representation of the situtation;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLlUgilKqms

And I take it you're a vegan, incidentally?

[Cratermaker]

Guys, it is difficult to tell what happened. The video from the Japanese vessel shows the other ship (at the beginning) traveling right to left. This would make it look like, from that ships point of view, that the other is turning right (you see more and more of the left side of the Japanese ship). I don't think either point of view is "obvious". (Yes, I know... port and starboard)

If I was going to play chicken with an 18 wheeler on a motorcycle repeatedly, I'd expect to mess up and buy the farm eventually, even if the 18 wheeler was trying to avoid me. Then again, if kept doing it over and over, the truck driver just might snap.

[cheezyflier]

on the one hand, i applaud them because i think their cause is an important one. but i have a really hard time with some of their tactics. i have no clue how it could be done better, but i just can't bring myself to endorse some of the things they do. i don't understand why the rest of the world allows whaling to continue. japan isn't the only country still doing it. they just grab the attention because they are doing more of it than anyone else, and openly.
whaling isn't the only practice in the cross hairs of paul watson. it's a wonder we don't here more about his activities than we do.

[TheOptimist]

This is a good read;

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/paul-watson-sea-shepherd-and

[Lionheart]

CF,

I like your new Avatar.



Like I was saying, cool looking little ship the Adi. I hope they can get it replaced.

Edit: And glad no one got hurt. Awesome..


Bill

[MaddogK]

LOL, 2 million dollar boat lost.

:applause:

My other comments may appear in the cantina later.

[Slug Flyer]

This is a good read;

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/paul-watson-sea-shepherd-and

While I may not agree with Greenpeace on many issues, I salute them for their respect for all life (including human life) and commitment to accomplishing their goals through peaceful means. :applause:

The fact that this ridiculous "research" loophole is flagrantly and cynically exploited to conduct commercial whaling is sickening. However, Sea Shepherd's reckless methods are dangerous and only serve to discredit their cause, and at times seem to be motivated more by the desire to attract publicity than by a sincere commitment to conservation.

[N2056]

And I take it you're a vegan, incidentally?

That's the sort of jab that people around here don't really appreciate. Opinions are one thing. Getting personal is another...

Frankly, now that we know our fellow member is ok anything else here ought to head over to Oso's.

[Willy]

Anymore unacceptable behavior and this thread will be closed. Opinions are one thing. Personnel attacks aren't allowed. Period.

This would probably best taken over to the Quarter Moon Saloon (aka Oso's) http://quartermoonsaloon.com/forum/

[Dain Arns]

Anymore unacceptable behavior and this thread will be closed. Opinions are one thing. Personnel attacks aren't allowed. Period.

This would probably best taken over to the Quarter Moon Saloon (aka Oso's) http://quartermoonsaloon.com/forum/

Willy, I asked earlier to please close this thread when it was determined Wombat666 was okay and not involved in this incident. Anything being discussed at this point no longer concerns his welfare and should be moved to Oso's.

Please close it per my request as the author of this thread. Thank you.

[Allen]

Paul Watson must employ a screening program whereby he filters out all of the people with common sense and instead just hires complete morons.

This I argree with. There is no other way to explain it.

[Marlin]

Hopefully it had eco friendly oil in it. :salute:

Eco terrorist lose a free ship. Easy come easy go.

I guess this reproves the old saying, tonnage wins.

(All of the video links above have been removed by the way.)

[Willy]

Closed by Original Poster's request.