Japanese Whaler Rams SSCS Ady Gil (ex-Earthrace)

Post Reply New Topic

Im on the side of the Japanese Whalers. I am glad to see that blame is shared.

It is about time someone did some forceful about these Whale Watch pirates. I am waiting for them to be hanged from the highest available yardarm.

ruveyn

Okay, the basic problem here is that everyone is assuming this isolated incident speaks for the entire history of whaling by the Japanse people.

Basically, there are two levels to this issue. At the simplest level, you have the actions of the captain and crew of the Shonan Maru II versus that of the Ady Gil. On the more complex level, you have the ICR - and by extension, the nation of Japan as a whole - and the Sea Shepards.

First, let's look at the bigger picture. The fact is, the Japanese have been in the business of hunting sea creatures - including whales - for food and other uses since they first came to their island nation. It's not just a cultural thing, it's part of how they survive. The lack of fertile land means that they cannot sustain themselves on diets similar to those of Europe and America. Instead, because of the lack of land, they turn to harvest from the sea.

Now why, might I ask you, makes whales so special? They are subject to the same laws that help conserve other species. If a particular animal species is endangered, you can't kill it. If it's not, you can hunt only as many as you need so that the population of said species remains at a manageable level. It's no different than the laws of the conservation districts in the US. If you want to hunt a particular animal, for meat or otherwise, you buy a tag for it. No tag, no permission to kill the animal. And since the amount of tags available to the general populace is proportional to the population of the animal, the conservation districts can then keep the species at a managble level; not too low as to make the species extinct, but not too high as to have them overrun other species in the area.

A lot of people think that hunting elk, antelope, or other common creatures is ok, but whales should not be touched. What's to say someone from Japan wouldn't think of a dolphin or whale the same way as someone from my home state of Wyoming thinks of an antelope or a mule deer? To them, they are a source of food. And before anyone says that the Japanese are overdoing it, let me remind you that the law states that they can take about 1000 smaller whales of the more common whale species a year. That allows them to have their whale meat while still keeping the whale population under control, so that they don't overpopulate. It's essentially a hunting tag fof whales.

However, the Sea Sheperds aren't content with simply having whales managed, they want to deny all nations their rights to (within reason) hunt whales. And they have a vendetta against Japan because they are the ones that do it the most. However, instead of going through proper channels and having the law changed by petitioning the UN, et cetera, they decide to take matters into their own hands and violently harass the Japanese whaling vessels, to the point of putting innocent sailor's lives at risk (and I am talking about the crew of the whaling ships. To them, hunting whales isn't a matter of right and wrong, its a job and a way of life.) Their actions are illegal and harmful, and in my honest opinion their methods are no different than that of the Somalian pirates or even Al-Qaeda.

Now, back to the smaller picture: the actions that the crew of the Shonan Maru II took against the Ady Gil. Their actions could have cost the crew of both ships their lives. That is obvious, and there is no excuse for that. But think about things from the perspective of the Shonan Maru. All you're doing is trying to scrape a living by hunting whales aboard a ship, which is something you've done all your life, it's what your father did, and his father before that, et cetera, and it's an honest hard-labor job that puts food on your plate. And then som nut-job environmentalists pull up amidships, scream at you, tell you and your crewmates that you are evil and deserve to die, then they throw a canister of tear gas into your face and attempt to damage the ship that is the one thing floating between you and the freezing, miles-deep ocean. Surely you would feel at the most pissed off, and at the very least concerned for your well-being from these crazy people trying to sink your ship? Perhaps the Shonan Maru did take things to far, but you have to understand that the Sea Shepards are bringing this upon themselves by interfering with Japan's rights as a sovereign state by keeping their sailors from exercising their right to hunt.

I agree with what you say but I still think that using what seem to be pretty dangerous tactics against the whalers can surely only be counter-productive. They're not going to stop the whalers - especially not "pirate" ones such as these - as the demand for whale meat, and most probably the money too, outweighs any risks that there might be from environmental campaigners. Plus, the campaigners aren't going to get any support from governments while they use pseudo-terrorist means. It just means that the violence between the whalers and campaigners escalates, while the whaling still carries on.

My theory is that the whaling vessel probably was steering towards the ady gil, but not to ram the ady gil, but too avoid sailing into the ( to the japanese) invisible prop- fowling line that the ady gil was laying in the whaling vessel's path.

Put two toy boats on a table top. Have one boat drag a piece of dental floss off its stern and then have that boat try to lay the dental floos in the path of the second boat. Heve the second boat try to avoid sailing over the dental floss. See what I mean?

So the japanese had to aim at or in front of the ady gil rather than steer behind the ady gil.


So since the ady gil was acting in malice (tryig to fowl the other ships prop) it takes on the responsibility of the consequences.

I wish the incident were an excuse to legally stick it to the whalers in some kind of criminal or civil action, but Im afriad that the ady gil would have to be found to be the instigator of the collision.

Except the Ady Gil wasn't towing anything. The hawser used for towing prop fouling lines attached to the Ady Gil's 'ears', and was clearly visible any time it was attached; additionally, video from the Ady Gil taken directly before the collision also shows that the vessel was standing down from the engagement to conserve fuel and wait for the Steve Irwin to arrive and resupply them. Furthermore, the Shonan Maru No. 2 had ample maneuvering room to avoid the Ady Gil if the former was worried worried about attacks from the latter (there was, for example, nothing preventing the Shonan Maru No. 2 from turning to port to put more distance between the vessels, and no reason for it to make a turn to starboard like it did).

[Edit]
Now that I think about it, attempting to avoid a prop-fouler by steering at the vessel towing it would be an odd evasion technique for the Shonan Maru No. 2 to have attempted. Based on the Ady Gil's reputation as a fast vessel, and taking into consideration that it was barely making headway (and thus could speed up by quite a bit), I think the whaling captain could've reasonably expected that attempting to evade the prop-fouler in this manner would likely result in his vessel running over it anyway as the smaller vessel accelerated forward out of the Shonan Maru No. 2's path. It's especially strange given that, as I stated above, the Shonan Maru No. 2 had a number of other options available at the time to avoid the Ady Gil and any mischief it's crew was planning.