Wednesday
Jan062010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Did anti-whalers trash their own boat?
Jan 6, 2010 Greens I chanced upon this video of the anti-whaling powerboat Adi Gil being chopped in half by a Japanese security vessel. This was a bit unfortunate for a vessel which apparently cost $1.5 million.
But something intrigued me about the video. Just watch the back of the powerboat. Did they accelerate just as the Japanese crossed their bow? Could they really have staged this incident to provoke a reaction? Could be.
Reader Comments (46)
Yes, looks like the batboat accelerated. However, if you look at this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rar9zxH1kts&annotation_id=annotation_558937&feature=iv
you'll see it looks like the whaling ship deliberately aimed for them.
Perhaps they both decided to crash into each other? Stranger things have happened at sea...
The two vessels were obviously on a collision course and the Japanese vessel was the one who should give way by going around the stern of the Adi Gil, it looks as though he may have turned to go astern of the Adi gil. if the Adi Gil went astern it would put him in the path of the Japanese vessel.
I don't think it was deliberate but two vessels being too close to each other, always a dangerous situation.
I think these are the guys on the Discovery Channel show that depicts them as the brave honest environmentalists standing against the evil corporate whalers. So very possible they trashed the boat for good ratings. Discovery will probably pick up some of the costs, or the millionaire in California who bought them the boat.
I'm sorry to see so much ignorance among people concerning whaling. To inform people on the subject I'll state some facts.
1. A whale is not a whale. There are about 40 species of what could be defined as whales.
2. Some species are very far from extinction, as the "common mink whale" with a population of 100.000
3. Hunting the latter species does not pose a threat, rather an advantage for other whale species, by reducing its impact on fish populations and leaving more "whale food" in the sea
PS Sorry , i did not mean ignorance among people of this blog, but amongst anti-whaling people :)
If you look at 10secs youcan clearly see the AD open the throttle (you can see the wake)
Yes, I think the skipper rammed the Japanese boat on purpose.
What is clear from the view taken from Bob Barker is...
The whaling ship was turning to starbd (right) as if to pass the stern of the bat boat, but just before impact it turns back to port.
As the skipper of the bat boat, seeing the whaler turning as if to go past your stern, you would accelerate.
The whaler should have carried on turning to starbd, putting it's Stbd engine into reverse whilst increasing revs on the port engine to help avoid the collision, however it turned to port again, whilst steaming high speed ahead.
Clearly the whaler was steaming far too fast given the circumstances.
Hlk what would happen to the mink population if every country took the same view as the Japanese?
Ramming whaling ships is what they do. I'll bet they expected their 'bullet proof' kevlar protected, carbon-fibre racing boat to withstand the collision. Carbon fibre does flex not like metal it shatters, and can do quite easily if the force travels with the grain as it were. I'd be surprised if a racing boat like that would ever be constructed to cope with such a hefty impact with something solid.
On the basis of that video I'd say they had ample opportunity to avoid a collision, rules of the sea or otherwise.
"Carbon fibre does flex not like metal it shatters"
Sorry. I'm not Yoda.
I have no strong feelings for or against either of the protagonists.
What I see is the AD apparently stationary in the water, probably trying to obstruct the passage of the whaler. The whaler alters course to sail close to the front of the AD - it looks like it's trying to warn off the AD or give its hosemen a better shot, but not trying to hit it.
At the last moment the AD moves forward, into the path of the whaler. The whaler starts to turn away to port, but a collision occurs. The AD then goes into reverse, and the whaler continues to swing away to port.
This is obviously dangerous close manoeveuring by the whaler, compounded by a miscalculation by the AD. Possibly the AD selected forward instead of reverse by mistake, or tried to force the whaler off its intended path by going forwards and then backwards, but left the manoeveure too late....
ANON:
The primary whale being hunted by japanese whalers are the antarctic minke whale. Its population is estimated at over 500.000 animals. Killing 500 whales a year, equates to less the 0,1% (One Per Mille or "One in thousand")
Secondly your question "Hlk what would happen to the mink population if every country took the same view as the Japanese?" does not compute..... Which logical basis are you using? This goes for every hunted animal species in the world, or non cultivated plants. What if all counries fish as much fish per capita as iceland? What if all countries in the world ate as many snails as the french? What if ......
You should see this video too (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNl00CWB0JU) preceding the incident. Ady Gil is running cirkles in front of and around the Whalervessel while repeatedly siming crew and bridgepersonell in the eys with a green laser. Quite nasty stuff.
If they wanted to avoid a collision, they definitly could have through their own actions.I'm not certain they deliberately caused the collision, but they will make the most of it now.
The whole episode shows what happens when spoiled kids get to expensive toys to play with on somebody elses account ...
Watch carefully, you can see that had the Agy Gil done nothing the SM2 would have passed it, rather closely with a lot of heaving, but the Gil still would not have been hit. Do I think they trashed their own boat to try and score some PR points? Yes.
"Agy" should be "Ady."
The environmentalist boat was clearly idling and drifting. As the whaler approached they gunned their engines. There's no other way to explain the turbulence at their stern otherwise. Why they would have done that is a question they should answer. Either the meant to ram or someone hit the panic button. Since the environmentalist routinely violate just about all the rules of sailing they're lucky they're not feeding the plankton.
All one has to do is look at the front page of just about any on-line newspaper -- headlines with video clips attached. It was a PR coup for the anti-whalers.
It is clear that the Ady Gil was operated in a totally reckless manner. People could have been killed. The captain of that boat should be prosecuted. This is not to say that I support whaling, because I do not, but such activities to "make your case" will lead to tragedy.
re: Jonas N
When my cat heard the siren (which I presume is from the AG), he jumped a mile. The AD seems to have been disrupting the whaler's communication as much as possible. Bit much to get upset they succeeded.
It's a sad day that the bad behaviour of these people puts you on the side of a whaler.
The anti-whalers are driving around the whalers dragging a line. They do this to disable the japanese whaling vessels motor. If a ship like the japanese fishing vessel looses engine power at sea, in rough weather, it may capsize. That is, the anti-whalers are provoking a situation in which the whalers might get killed. It is very difficult for people to understand this. It is a big boat, it may seem like David vs. Goliath. But it is still true.
Please share this information with any people portraying the anti-whalers as heroes fighting a "bad" enemy in a "passive" way. It is not at all passive. It is agressive and dangerous.
Shona,
The "siren" you hear is the LRAD on the whaling ship. They put the LRAD's on last season to try and force the anti-whalers to keep their distance.
Rules of the road, the smaller boat has to give way ... The reasons are obvious.
Maybe someone with a genuine background in marine operations can clarify this. From what I see in the videos I've watched and from how I understand the "rules of the road" for watercraft, the SS craft appears to be violating those rules. In the one above, the SS vessel begins to develop a forward wake as the whaling vessel passes and appears to accelerate directly into the whaler. After the impact the SS boat reverses. The view of the whaler's wake at the end appears to curve away to port, meaning it was turning away from the SS boat at the time of the impact.
right
This would be an easy case in court. The Ady Gil obviously accelerated into the bow of the Japanese ship at the last moment. This is clear even in the video linked in the first reader comment.
QED
Shona
I might be missing the point: What do you mean by 'on the side of a Whaler'? (I'm missing your allusion to your cat too)
I was talking about very dangerous behaviour at sea. Thanx also HLX for your point about the dragging line. I noticed those lines in the video but couldn't make anything out of it. But what you say makes sense, it also explains the circling, and makes the activists behavior even mor descpicable. They are nothing but criminals and should be treated like such.Pirates if you wish (they even had a skull painted on the vessel)
That doen't necessarily mean sinking their ship, but reasonable acts in self-defense should be legitimate ...
Sorry Jonas, I meant "you" "one" and not "you" "Jonas".
I personally find myself uncomfortably on the side of the whaler, despite thinking whaling should be banned.
As to the cat, I thought the wailing sound was being used by the AD, and my cat didn't like it. Which I gather, is the point.
There are other photographs of the incident with the eco gits in the power boat aiming a green laser at the Japanese crew to blind them. Such retinal damage is for keeps. If I was the Jap skipper I would have run them down too.
And just in case anyone thinks that the Sea Shepherd crew wouldn't be so foolish to try such a stunt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_b_IYQMSvM
Look at the bow wave of the powerboat. There is none, absolutely none. They are dead in the water. Also the total lack of wake (except the remnants from before the boat was stopped) confirms that they had zero speed through the water. It is abundantly clear that the powerboat only starts moving forward later. The new wake from the props confirm that. There can only be one explanation: They wanted to get under the bow of the whaler.
But what do I know. I have only sailed thosands and thousands of miles in small boats during the past 40 years.
I agree - the bat boat accelerated. The wake shows it.
But I wonder of the doofus bat boat pilot was just stupidly accelerating to trying to avoid the water spray that was hitting them at just that time.
I mean, given what they're doing, they aren't too bright to begin with - yes?
I bet it was coooold!
Here's a video that was taken shortly before the ramming incident which, if you look closely, shows crewmembers on the Adi Gil attaching netting to the end of a rope and then dragging it behind them while circling the Japanese vessel. This is a deliberate (and often used) attempt to foul the rudder and propellors of the whaling vessel thus leaving it crippled. The results of this could be fatal in heavy seas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrZaMYO0Sv4
PS. I certainly don't side with the whalers but these eco-warriors are a menace.
Could a translation of the japanese dialogue which can be heard be provided?
Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS) is a set of UN issued rules followed by all seafarers. Included is COLREGS; NAVREGS and Rules of the Roa, all of which Mariners ignore at their peril.
The Japanese seafarers are ordinary merchant seamen, whereas the "greens" are, by now, paramilitaries.
How is it that these people can ignore the Law with impunity?
Sorry, typo, read Rules of the Road.
"Do I think they trashed their own boat to try and score some PR points? "
Don't blame malice when idiocy would suffice. All those sea suckers needed not to crash their spoiler's toy was to leave their hand off the throttle, do nothing and wait for the 100 T boat to pass, there was largely enough clearance. If their batboat was insured, nobody in his mind would bet those irresponsible hippies will get more than one cent from the lucky insurer. With the available videos, the case of self-blundering is closed.
It's not the first time that Pete Buthane (the NZ owner and skipper of Earthrace/Ady Gil) has managed to hit another vessel. The craft hit a fishing boat off the coast of Guatemala 3 years ago killing one fisherman and injuring another. Good job he could afford "high powered lawyers".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10429738
The AD was also trying to foul the propeller and rudder of the Japanese whaling ship by dragging rope lines behind it. this also happened in fairly heavy waves. Note the rise and fall of the bow of the Japanese vessel. If you think its safe to pilot your kevlar boat in close proximity to a much larger vessel in heavy seas while trying to foul it's steering and propulsion you should expect an accident. The captain of the Japanese ship may not have even been able to see the low slug AD in the chop it looks like he was steering one way then another to get out of the way.
Eco-Idiots.
From multiple videos of the incident it is clear the japanese ship turned hard to starboard to put them on a collision course, it was they, not the AG that were looking to make contact on this occasion. The AG is clearly at idle power for most of this time and so could not possibly have maneuvered into the path of the japanese ship. With a collision imminent, the AG engines fire up in what is presumably an attempt to escape the impact. However because they left it too late to act, they have only moved a few meters forward which may or may not have worsened the impact, as the japanese ship was still turning to cause a collision the AG was left in an impossible position. Stay and be hit, or try and move and maybe get hit worse.
If I had to guess I'd say the japanese intended to scrape the AG to send it back to port but the attempted evasion of the AG at the last second *may* have put them further in the path of the japanese and turned a scrape into a major hit.
I don't fault the japanese at all for doing it to these pirates but I don't need to blur the lines either and pretend it was the ecowarriors who were responsible, when clearly they were not.
My Asian Language is Chinese, not Japanese, but I sure hope that the Japanese we heard in the tape was something along the lines of "Bakayaro! (Idiots!) Ramming speed now, before they kill us all!" Again, I'm no fan of whaling and suspect that cetaceans may be the OTHER sentient species on the planet. On the other hand, these "people" don't really care about the survival of their own species. There is another agenda at work here. It's no pro-human.
@ Mr. Black.
You cannot from this video conclude that the whaler turns to port. I searched and found a split screen version of the incident at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXWD_BAkpII
In the upper window of this version it definitely looks like the whaler is steering to starbord shortly before the collision. It may also be swerwing to starboard due to wave action as there is evidently quite a sea. An inquiry should be able to establish that. Do note however, that the accelleration of Earthrace/Ady Gil just before the collision is also quite easy to see in the view from forward of the vessels. Without this accelleration it is doubtful if there would have been a collision.
A skippper of a small and highly maneuverable boat will never put himself in a position so close to a larger ship. You only do that if you are seeking trouble. If he inadverdently finds himself in such a situation - which is clearly not the case here - he would back off instead and easily avoid the collision. What the skipper does here is risking the lives of his crew. That is despicable to any seaman.
Actually the use of a green laser to try to blind Japanese sailors makes the eco warriors into war criminals in breach of the geneva convention, which states:
Protocol IV on Blinding Laser Weapons prohibits the use of laser weapons specifically designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision, that is to the naked eye or to the eye with corrective eyesight devices. The High Contracting Parties shall not transfer such weapons to any State or non-State entity.
from:
http://www.un.org/millennium/law/xxvi-18-19.htm
Not that this will worry the fascists.
Ian
Suggestions that the whaler steering to port as a cause for the collision is ludicrous. A boat of that size can't turn in such a fast manner so as to put a much more manoeuvrable speedboat into trouble. If the cat had only reversed he would have avoided the collision. The fact that he didn't showed either poor skills or deliberate inaction.
Lars,
I don't doubt that the AG was looking to cause trouble and they can only really do that by being in frequent and close proximity to japanese vessels. I'm drawing a distinction between "close enough to be a nuisance" and "close enough for a collision". The footage taken from the 3rd vessel present shows a significant aspect change on the japanese ship prior to collision, I would estimate that it turned at least 20 degrees to starboard while the AG was motionless and that action put them on a collision course regardless of what the AG crew might have wanted.
When a 500t ship is clearing aiming to make contact, even slightly with the platsic yacht you're standing on, I wouldn't fault the potentially poor judgement of the AG's skipper in perhaps making the impact worse by accelerating at the last moment in what I believe was a vain attempt at evasion. When faced with a collision possibility with a turning vehicle, in this case a ship, it is extremely difficult to judge the best course of evasive action, even more so when the vehicle you are avoiding is actually aiming at you and may adjust course to ensure an impact.
It simply makes no sense to outift this brand new vessel with all manner of equipment and stealth features! if the intent was to have it sunk as a stunt. I certainly cannot believe the crew were sent on a mission that would likely result in them being killed, and they would have to know that.
Chris,
If the cat had only reversed he would have avoided the collision. The fact that he didn't showed either poor skills or deliberate inaction.
If the AG needed to take evasive action to avoid a collision, when they are stationary and the japanese are underway, then obviously it must have been the japanese that steered onto the collision course in the first place. The AG may well have not reacted sooner because they couldn't believe the japanese would try to sink them through ramming. They had at most, 15 seconds to realise that is exactly what was going to happen if they didn't get out of the way, but the time they tried to, it was too late.
That is how I read the situation anyway.
IMHO the whaler would have been reluctant to pass astern of the speedboat because the speedboat had previously been observed to be dragging a line, tryingto disable whaling vessels and at least be an obstruction to navigation.
Bernd has it exactly correct, because the AG is attempting to foul the screw and rudder of the whaler, the whaler has an absolute defense against passing astern of the AG, it is therefore entirely the SS skippers fault. That makes it three strikes against SS, piracy, war crimes (the laser) and criminal negligence. Anyone supporting them (as in the Australian and NZ governments are) are then guilty of condoning those crimes.
Mr. Black,
After viewing the incidient again and again, including the 3-way split screen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLdUISE3e8c&feature=response_watch
I can only conclude as previously that the Adi Gil causes the collision by accelerating at the last moment. Yes, the whaler turns at least 20 degrees, probably even 30 degrees but if you look at the footage taken from the whaler, the Adi Gil is at least 45 degrees off to starboard before the turn. The footage taken shortly before the collision from the Adi Gil confirms this. It would definitely had been a close shave and maybe, just maybe a slight knock from somewhere down alongside the whaler, if it had continued the turn. I am, however, quite sure that there is absolutely no way it can get under the bow of the whaler without the acceleration. It has been suggested that Adi Gil is taking avoiding action but this is clearly not the case. Avoiding action would have been to back off - exactly as it does after the collision. In the highly unlikely event (basically impossible actually) that going forwards was a way of getting away from the whaler, it would definitely had been accpanied by a turn to starboard. There is no turn to starboard.
Btw: The Adi Gil is a trimaran of the "ILAN Voyager" type. Designed by Nigel Irens if I remember correctly. ILAN means Incredibly Long And Narrow and refers to the fact that once you get past a waterline length/beam ratio of more that 10:1 you need very little power to push the hull at a fast speed. So one could also say that it basically is a singlehulled vessel with supporting legs. The discovery of this was made back in 1910 or so, when a very slim passenger steamer suddenly displayed hitherto unknown hydrodynamic characteristics.