Eco-terrorist group Sea Shepherd are bringing legal charges of piracy against the Japanese whaling vessel they recently attacked, after their crippled vessel was abandoned at sea, a loss of over a million dollars, in an incident the group is claiming was an intentional act of piracy by the Japanese.
Claiming that a Dutch crewman was onboard the Ady Gil at the time of the collision, and that the vessel’s nearby “mothership” was registered in the Netherlands, Sea Shepherd intends to press charges of piracy against the vessel in Dutch courts.
Their legal counsel claims to have clear photographic evidence of the Japanese ship violently attacking the Ady Gil, meeting the legal definition of piracy.
With most of the action taking place in international waters, Sea Shepherd’s attacks on whalers are in a legal grey area, though any charges of piracy leveled against either Sea Shepherd or a whaling vessel would be unlikely to result in extradition.
Japanese legislators have been said to be considering whether attackers could be arrested at sea, but given Japan’s generally supine diplomacy this seems unlikely.
Sea Shepherd claim the ruthless Japanese pirates chased them down and aimed their huge ship right at their helpless little craft, intent on causing maximum casualties:
“The Shonan Maru did a quick turn and came in real fast, they were aiming for the cockpit, where the crew were, and fortunately we got the engines in reverse and backed up just enough so that the front of the ship was torn off instead of hitting the cockpit.
They were trying to sink the ship. We put out a mayday distress signal and the Japanese refused to respond – it was a hit and run really.”
The Japan’s Fisheries Agency for their part claim the nimble boat deliberately stopped in front of the much larger and less manoeuvrable whaling vessel:
“You can see that the Shonan Maru is moving to the port to try and avoid a collision and there’s no avoiding the collision with the Ady Gil.
It’s a fast boat, she heads off full steam in front of it and miscalculates. So it’s no wonder that it came to the grief that it has.”
Unlike Sea Shepherd, they have released a number of videos ostensibly supporting their claims.
The Antipodean press has also responded gleefully to chance for some Japan-bashing, eagerly lapping up Sea Shepherd’s melodramatic account of a battle with whale-slaughtering pirates, one rag even calling it a “war”:
“It was the most terrifying moment of my life – when you look up and there’s the bow of a thousand-tonne steel ship hanging above you, about to split you in two. You’re looking death straight in the eye.”
Sea Shepherd’s wealthy backers have already promised a replacement ship, so it seems the dance is set to continue.
you got to admit tho, those are some nice boats they have
That boat looks like something batman would pilot.
Humans think they’re so superior. Through this bloated mentality we may kick the proverbial footstool from under our feet and hang. We don’t need to exploit animals like this for “food”, and smart-ass comments sure aren’t needed either.
Any true environmentalist philosophy must absolve killing as the minimum standard of decency and logic.
You wouldn’t approve of slaughter and genocide for other people you care about or your own race, so why disrespect all life that is non-human? Interference like this in whale social systems and it’s impact on all creatures is hazardous and unnecessary.
They aren’t eco-terrorists.
They’re not scaring or threatening creatures by destroying their habitats, they don’t trawl creatures and destroy coral reefs, or cut down trees for profit, they aren’t cutting fetus whales out of their mother’s bellies, the above acts would be in line with someone who is eco-terrorizing. Eco-terrorist is another backwards label on the wrong group.
How do you manage wildlife? It’s wild, thus it is not managed. If there is imbalance then Humans must deal with having fucked up the Circle of life without more killing.
Population management is nonsene. Direct action approach saves lives.
It really doesnt take any experience or brainpower for it to make sense that smaller vessels should stay outta the way of larger ships, hell, i cant think of anywhere where its not law. So how do the hippies plan on justifying piracy by the whalers? whats the turning circle on one of the whaling vessels compared to their million dollar toy?
Even if that wasnt enough to question the validity of what they’re saying… I’m Australian (sea shepherd is an australian based organisation /facepalm), you should see some of the crap they’re sending through the media. Firstly they said their toy ran outta fuel, and was sitting there helplesly, then they changed it to the whalers trying to chase them, etc etc.
Terrorists wearing environmentalist’s clothing… I’ll be standing on the shore cheering the day the whalers get so fed up they turn their harpoons on those who deserve it.