Breaking news from the whale wars

[MauiScubaSteve]

The footage of the previous 3 hours has no bearing on fault in the collision. The Ady Gil was not under way for over a minute leading up to impact and the Whaler made numerous course corrections over the course of nearly 3 minutes to put itself into an attack position on an at the time non harassing vessel.

It does not matter if at the last moment the Captain of the Whaler tried to avoid them because the Captain of the Whaler is the only one responsible for the too close approach that resulted in the collision. There were many times the Whaler could have easily maintained course and not made a close approach; 2 minutes before, 1 minute before, 30 seconds before, even 20 seconds before impact if the Whaler had kept to course there would have been no collision.

Inside 20 seconds before impact the Whaler Captain obviously turns hard starboard to make the too close approach. The Ady Gil is still not under way and the possible water cannon induced forward thrust of the AG does not happen for another 15 seconds (when the water cannon spray hits the cockpit).

While the Whaler may not be able to turn on a dime, it sure turned on a quarter, right into a life endangering predicament caused solely by the Whaler Captain.

 

[OldNSalty]

I am willing to wait for the official report/finding/sanctions what-ever and i hope they both get in some deep trouble over this. I have to say, this thread has been more entertaining then actually watching whale wars...or even eating whale at a PETA meeting.

 

[JKPAO]

Wow eating whale at a PETA meeting! Anyway Halemano I haven't had a chance to watch the video a little closer. (watching hockey tonight) As far as I know there is no "to close rule" (other than collision)! #7 risk of collision;#8 action to avoid collision; So I do not know which officails will site under thier investigation!

Just to clarify, they are under way,they are not making way( which in my opinion is questionable)
On the lines of when reporters say the diver died because he ran out of oxygen in his tank.

See you topside! John

 

[ScubaSteve]

On the lines of when reporters say the diver died because he ran out of oxygen in his tank.

Well maybe if the diver was diving a rebreather AND was diving the wreck of the Ady Gil

 

[Geoff_H]

Doesn't matter what the SS or Ady Gil had been doing, the actions of the SM2 amount to attempted murder.

I think you're more likely to be able to charge the skipper of the Ady Gil with attempted murder of his five shipmates.

 

[Katamuki]

19 pages!

Doesn't matter what the SS or Ady Gil had been doing, the actions of the SM2 amount to attempted murder. Whatever the SS or Ady Gil had been doing up until then became irrelevant when the SM2 rammed the Ady Gil.

If your the skipper of the Whaler and you have been harassed for days or weeks, you have been fired at with a mortar, had unknown chemicals lobbed at you, aggressive boarding for unknown reasons have occurred, a fouling line to disable your vessel and leave you at the mercy of the freezing waters and heavy winds and buzzed by a helicopter flying at dangerous heights I dont think any court would convict you of a trumped up charge of attempted murder. And that is ASSUMING there was any evidence you turned into the AGGRESSIVE boat (aka Pirate/Terrorist Vessel).

 

[Mr.X]

Note: Still doing the analysis. Early trends indicate degrees of profit when you aggregate catch totals from all whaling activities - includes the Antarctic and local waters. More to uncover as the long-term warehousing of whale meat indicates steady decrease in consumption.

If you can't move product back home it nullifies the point of harvest. That being said the government subsidies of the whaling industry indicate a long-term desire to keep people employed, or something else. Much like Ag subsidies in the US. With Japan at a 5% + unemployment rate (which dang high for Japan) the need to keep people moving ahead is big.

X

 

[Geoff_H]

Thanks for the analysis Mr X. As I suspected, it looks like this will be profitable - even if marginally so. I suspect if Sea Shepherd can decrease the total catch significantly it could tip the expeditions into loss. I seem to remember them making this point last year.

For the warehousing - the latest trends I saw showed a small reduction in the amount warehoused over the past three or so years - i.e. consumption marginally outstripping supply.

Here is a chart showing this - I can't link PNG files but you can click to view:

inventoryratio_0902.png (image)

You can see the number of months inventory has fallen from around 9 months to around 6 months worth since 2005.

 

[DCBC]

Once again, - you have no idea of the helm commands of the trawler

You are wrong. I don't claim to be an expert, but have been in-control of a 500 ton Destroyer. This is approx. the same size as the Trawler in-question. Even I, as an inexperienced Naval Watch / Navigation Officer could have easily avoided the AG (unless the vessels positions and sea state have been misrepresented on the video).

Even if this was an isolated incident, you have no idea if the trawler skipper tried to avoid a collision or not. Boats that size on a rough sea do not travel in a straight, undeviating line, even without commands from the helm. The vessel is subject to pitch and yaw from the sea, which has a much greater influence than the helm over a couple of dozen metres or twenty seconds.

I'm aware of the forces involved. The Trawler Skipper didn't even sound a collision warning (required by the Maritime Law Convention), but of course, you knew that.

Once again these vessels can not turn on a dime, and it is abundantly obvious that the Ady Gil accelerated into the whaler.

None of the SS-apologists in this thread are keen to acknowledge these overarching facts.

Perhaps you know something that we fail to see. Perhaps you can explain it in greater detail.

 

[AquaExplorer]

I still say....good on the Japanese whaler!