I agree with your analysis of the vessel movements. I think the Andy Gil’s skipper either
thought the whaler would continue the hard port turn away and went ahead slightly in order to “play chicken” but he misjudged either by going ahead too hard or by being wrong about the whaler’s port turn, or
panicked thinking that the whaler was going to hit (which it wasn’t) and so he thought he had no option but to go ahead to try to cross the whaler’s bow, which didn’t work out.
I can’t tell from the video which it is.
Trying to analyse the situation in terms of the Colregs is hard given that they are written on the assumption that vessels are just conducting ordinary navigation and trying hard to avoid danger and close quarters situations. The whaler’s starboard turn with a vessel on their starboard bow was a breach of the colregs, but then what do the regs say about what is permitted when you are being actively attacked by a vessel displaying pirate markings which has evinced an intention to disable your vessel? The master of the whaler will say that he felt his safety depended upon a counterattack necessitating the creation of a close quarters situation.
There isn’t a tribunal in Japan that would penalise the master of the whaler, and frankly I don’t think an international tribunal would either.
They’re already bragging about sinking boats so there is nothing to win over. They’re pirates. I don’t understand why the boats aren’t seized at their port of call.
What would they be seized for specifically? This latest round may have involved significant criminal behaviour on SS’s behaviour from what I have seen in the last couple of days. I haven’t really followed their shenanigans closely. What specific criminal or other behaviour would entitle the Australian government seizing their boats?
They have bigger ships. Problem is their bigger ships are anywhere from slower to barely faster than the whaling ships. The Japanese ship in the video is actually not a whaling ship. It is a security ship for the whaling fleet. It watches the Sea Shepherds and tells the other ships so they can avoid them.
The Ady Gil was to serve two roles (as I see it).
It has a relatively long range and ability to deal with open ocean (for what amounts to a speed boat) while being LOTS faster than the whaling ships. This, in theory, can allow it to quite easily get in a position to deploy ropes to foul rudders.
Hearkening back to their old days the Ady Gil was meant to be used to put itself between the whaling ship and the whale to stop them from taking a shot. They used to do that in rubber boats with outboards. Unfortunately those left the crew exposed to the elements in Antarctic waters, was dangerous in hi seas for the crew and they did not have a lot of loiter time. The Ady Gil could presumably sit in front of whaler’s guns for a long time while the crew lived in relative comfort.
Thinking on it I can only suppose that the Japanese intentionally ran them over precisely because they saw it as all too effective a ship and wanted to take it out.
And for all the cries of “pirate” here the Japanese are damn lucky no one was killed. Had they rammed the back where people were those guys would’ve been smushed and/or knocked into water so cold survival time is measured in minutes if you go swimming. Dumb luck with a ship that big it worked out as it did (about as ideally as possible for the Japanese).
The thing is, your average Australian doesn’t (IMHO) genuinely care one way or the other about whales. It’s “trendy” to be against whaling, but when it comes down to it most people honestly don’t care as long as the Japanese are hunting Mink whale and nothing endangered.
The whaler security ship intentionally rammed the speed boat that was idling and could not get out of the way. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be on the side of the people intentionally provoking the fight, but there was no whaling going on. The security ship has an obligation to avoid hitting another vessel if it has the ability to avoid it, not ram it. That the Sea Shepards were not engaged in meddling at the moment is critical: they were not engaged in a crime and the security people had every opportunity to call the sea cops, not take the law of the sea into their own hands. Moreover, this is territory that Australia claims as sovereign and whaling is prohibited. It is stupid to interfere with poachers anywhere, as they can turn violent. I seem to recall that was how George Adamson was killed.
Oddly enough, not really. The news always reports on “Whaling in the Southern Ocean” or “Whaling in Antarctic Waters”, almost never “Whaling in Australian waters”.
I think Australia and New Zealand make some claim to those waters. The international community I do not think deems it “their” (Aus/NZ) waters though. Nevertheless I believe those governments feel it is theirs or at least their backyard and would want people there abiding by their rules.
The point I’m making is that the Government’s view (“Whaling is bad, M’kay?”) is not unequivocally and genuinely shared by everyone in Australia.
Or, to put it another way: if the Sea Shepherd team just gave up and decided to re-focus their efforts on oil drilling in the Persian Gulf or something, then Whaling would cease to be a topical subject in Australia and no-one outside the Government would really care that the Japanese were taking a few Mink whales in Antarctic Waters, for the most part. At least, IMHO anyway.
Point I am making, which stemmed from why doesn’t the government impound Sea Shepherd ships, is the government is ok with what they do. Even if the Australian public couldn’t give a shit it is the government who does. Or maybe the government doesn’t give a shit either so sees no need to be arsed to arrest the Sea Shepherd crew.
Bottom line is the Australians/New Zealanders, for whatever reason, seem content to let the Sea Shepherd do its thing. I can only suppose that is because they like the Japanese whalers less than the Sea Shepherds. Afterall in the end it is the government that does the impounding/arresting.
The Japanese already lose money on the whaling. They sell so little whalemeat that they give it out free to schools in order to make some use of what they “harvest”. So no, the economic argument will not work to dissuade them, as it has not done so yet.
It is illegal not because the Japanese are hunting whales per se, but because they claim they are doing it as scientific research, whereas that is just a figleaf cover for the fact that they wish to go on hunting whales as a point of pride, but lack the nerve to come out and say so. They are signatories to an agreement not to hunt whales commercially, which they plainly break every year.
The one upside is that this year’s whaling was done under the budget allocated by the previous government. The new government is cutting back on all sorts of unnecessary expenditure and they have little to lose in cutting this too; ironically the bigger the fuss the rest of the world makes the more they may feel inclined not to back down so as to save face. Few Japanese care strongly about this issue, or are even aware of it much.
Sorry, but your opinion may well be your opinion, but as an indicator of reality, it is unadulterated horseshit. Let me quote you from an actual poll done by the Lowy Institute in 2008:
(Sorry, you have go to a pdf linked off that page to get to the poll, I can’t link directly).
You really need to look at that video more closely. It’s hard because there is no background against which to note movement, but focus on the attitude of the whaler (yaw and roll) in the last few seconds. It is aiming ahead of the Ady Gil, then it turns slightly to port (away) and then suddenly the Ady Gil is in front of the whaler’s stem. There is no roll of the whaler to port, nor does the whaler suddenly show more of its port side (both of which would occur if it turned hard starboard, towards the Ady Gil). Not only that but just as the Ady Gil becomes directly ahead of the whaler there is more white water astern of the former such as would be caused by prop wash.
Short summary is that there is no doubt in my mind that the Ady Gil moved ahead, into the whaler’s path, at the last second.
You can just reinforce the hull with whatever wood you have lying the ship when traveling through ice. At least that’s what they did for one episode. Therefore, it must work.
I forget where I saw the quote (so no cite) but I read a Japanese official saying that by the terms of the treaty whales killed for research are not to go to waste (which I take to mean after testing don’t throw it out). So, if true which I have no idea if it is, supposedly the treaty demands they eat the stuff after they do their “research”.
Australia is definitely anti commercial whaling, so it’s certainly no surprise they don’t care if the Sea Shephards piss off the Japanese. That whole, “we only kill thousands of Minke for scientific purposes and we only sell the meat in restaurants and supermarkets because… um… we don’t want it to go to waste” is a slap in the face to every non-whaling society.
Please see my post #64 and stop basing arguments on unfounded assumptions about what the government could do even assuming it wanted to.
I don’t doubt that the government is not keen on being seen to shut down the Sea Shepherds because (comments of one poster’s wrongheaded opinion notwithstanding) whaling by the Japanese is deeply, deeply unpopular here. Nonetheless, exactly what could be done to shut them down even if the will was there is not clear.
The simple, unassailable, practical fact that must be remembered is that Australia does not have the resources to project force into the relevant region, and nor does anyone else who cares. So both the whalers and Sea Shepherds get to carry on like it’s the wild west, government preferences notwithstanding.
At 5 seconds in you can clearly see the security ship turn (to its starboard) into the Ady Gil. At around 19 seconds you can see the security ship reversing its turn (now to port).
So, roughly 15 seconds for it to all go down.
Now consider you are the driver on the Ady Gil. What do you see? Big ass ship turning in to you. By what I quoted earlier the Ady Gil was idling and not doing anything and the driver was not at the helm ready to respond on an instant’s notice. By the time he gets back to drive the boat what is his response? Big boat turning in to you, backing up is not an option, best chance is to move forward to get out of the way.
Makes perfect sense to me and is what I would do.
Except the security ship was thinking ahead. The Ady Gil cannot reverse nearly as well as it can go forward. Particularly in heavy seas (note how much the security ship is pitching up and down). So, the security ship reverses its turn (going to port now) and the Ady Gil, trying to get away by going forward, is doomed. The security ship had it pinned.
It is flat out absurd to think the driver of the Ady Gil intentionally rammed a ship literally a few hundred times bigger than it is and made out of steel to their kevlar/fiberglass. They were trying to get away. They had maybe 15 seconds to respond. Did not go well for them and while we may second guess the choices I think in that circumstance the driver made the right decisions given the situation.
