/ 7 January 2010

Sea Shepherd boat sinks after being ‘sliced in half’ by whalers

It was as much a clash of ideas as a battle of wills between the crews of two boats in some of the world’s most inhospitable waters.

On one side was the Shonan Maru No 2, a diesel-powered, 490-tonne harpoon ship protecting Japan’s Antarctic whaling fleet as it maintains a tradition stretching back centuries; on the other, the Ady Gil, a sleek, biodiesel-powered speedboat manned by a crew willing to put themselves in harm’s way to end the slaughter.

The stand-off took its most dramatic turn for years today when activists from the Sea Shepherd marine conservation group accused the whalers of ramming and sinking the Ady Gil, adding to international tensions surrounding Japan’s annual “scientific” hunts.

Sea Shepherd said its stricken boat, a 78-foot catamaran made of fibreglass, had been “sliced in half” after being rammed near Antarctica’s Commonwealth Bay. Japanese fisheries officials insisted that the boat had been hit accidentally as it sought a confrontation with the Shonan Maru No 2.

The speedboat’s six crew were rescued and five of them taken aboard another of the group’s boats. One, a New Zealander, is thought to have suffered cracked ribs after being thrown to the deck in the collision. Another remained aboard the Ady Gil on Wednesday night, attempting to salvage as much equipment as possible from the sinking vessel.

Sea Shepherd’s founder, Paul Watson, accused the whalers of deliberately ploughing into the front of the boat while it was stationary. “It was a vicious attack,” he said satellite telephone from the group’s mother ship, the Steve Irwin.

“The Shonan Maru turned and deliberately struck the Ady Gil, cutting it in half. The captain was trying to reverse to get out of its way when it happened. If he hadn’t done so the Shonan Maru could have struck another part of the boat and killed someone.”

In a statement, the group said the Ady Gil was missing about three metres of its bow, adding that there was little chance of salvaging the wreckage.

Watson’s claims drew an angry response from Japanese officials, who accused Sea Shepherd of engaging in “extremely dangerous” behaviour.

The fisheries agency said the collision occurred when the Ady Gil ignored warnings and suddenly slowed down as it crossed in front of the Shonan Maru. “These acts of sabotage that threaten our country’s whaling ships and crew were extremely dangerous,” it said in a statement. “It is totally unforgivable.”

The agency said the Shonan Maru had emerged unscathed and none of the crew members had been injured. The stand-off began earlier in the day when activists threw stink bombs made from rancid butter on to the deck of the whaling fleet’s mother ship, the Nisshin Maru.

The Institute of Cetacean Research, a government-funded body which organises the hunts, said that the Ady Gil had come “within collision distance” of the Nisshin Maru‘s bow and dangled a rope in the water that could have entangled the ship’s rudder and propeller.

The whalers reportedly responded by firing high-powered hoses to keep the Sea Shepherd vessels away.

Sea Shepherd had hoped to use the Ady Gil to frustrate the whalers and force them to abandon the hunt. It will now be left to the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker, a Norwegian Antarctic harpoon vessel, to continue the pursuit.

Glenn Inwood, the institute’s spokesperson in New Zealand, said the whalers’ footage of the collision disproved the activists’ account. “Sea Shepherd claims that the Shonan Maru has rammed the Ady Gil and cut it in half; its claim is just not vindicated by the video,” he said.

Watson said the loss of the $1,8-million boat, paid for by a California businessman, would not deter Sea Shepherd from pursuing the fleet, which this year plans to kill 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

“Once we have finished attending to the Ady Gil we will be back chasing them, cutting their quota and their profits,” Watson said. “We still have another two months left of this.”

The incident has reignited a bitter, six-year rivalry between the whalers and their pursuers, during which Sea Shepherd claims it has made significant dents in the whaling fleet’s cull. Last year it said the fleet had returned to port with about 350 fewer whales than planned.

Greenpeace, which disapproves of Sea Shepherd’s direct tactics, has not sent a vessel to the Southern Ocean for the past two years, while it concentrates on building an anti-whaling movement in Japan.

Recent hunts have been disrupted by dramatic confrontations in freezing waters between Sea Shepherd and the whaling fleet, which left port in November and is due to return in early spring.

Although commercial whaling has been banned since 1986, a loophole in the International Whaling Commission’s moratorium allows Japan to conduct “lethal research” and sell the meat from hundreds of whales on the open market.

Australia and New Zealand, the closest countries to the scene of the annual confrontation, today urged both sides to show restraint. “Our strongest condemnation applies to any violent or dangerous activity that takes place in these remote and inhospitable waters,” Australia’s environment minister, Peter Garrett, said.

The Australian government, a vocal critic of Japan’s whaling, is under pressure to act on reports that the whalers had chartered Australian aircraft to “spy” on the Sea Shepherd’s vessels.

Julian Gillard, Australia’s deputy prime minister, said: “We do not condone this action by the Japanese government. We’re urgently seeking legal advice about this matter.” – guardian.co.uk