Video: Sea Shepherd collides with whaling harpoon ship

The crew aboard the Sea Shepherd are my heroes! This is (apparently) the only way to stop this cruel slaughter of whales, considering no government wants to do the right thing.

GO SEA SHEPHERD!!

wish i was fit enough to help to stop the murder of whales by the crual japs

Regardless of anyone's political or environmental views, and regardless of whether you love whales to look at or to eat, that was the most blatant case of intentional ramming I have ever witnessed. The Steve Irwin's Captain disregarded every rule of sailing on the high seas and fully deserves to have his Masters license REVOKED!!! That was a dangerous, intentional, and stupid manuever. You can see by the Steve Irwin's bow wake and attitude of the ship that he did not try to "back down" as he was quoted in other articles. PULL HIS TICKET TO SAIL NOW!!!!!!!

"Pull the Steve Irwins Captains lic" Pull your own head in Mate. What about the illegal activities of the Institute for Cetacean Research. They are poaching whales protected by Australian and International Law in our own back yard. How is this any differnt than your neighbor jumping over your fence into your back yard and killing your animals in the name of sceince, yet never producing one sceintific document since 1986? Then selling the meet on the open market in your city.

The answer to this is simple. The Sea Shepherd Organization is just doing what everyone should be doing but isn't. We should have stopped whaling long ago. Every time I buy something I try to make sure it is not made by a Japanese company. I realize that is a challenge but I do my best. When their government finally starts acting like it belongs in the 21st century and stops this activity I will consider increasing my support of their economy. Until then - not a chance. Whaling is stupid, unnecessary and if nothing else, makes no economic sense. Companies like Honda, Toyota and Canon say they are environmentally driven companies. All talk. Keep up the good work Sea Shepherd. I will send you my donation!

Let me give you an analogy. I don't believe smoking should be legal, but it is. So the actions of the Steve Irwin's captain would be the same as if I, in attempt to stop smoking, slammed my car into the side of a delievery truck as it delievered cigarettes to a store. Although it makes a statement, it does NOTHING to stop people smoking. It does endanger the truck driver who is only trying to make a wage. It endangers the rescue workers that would potentially have to pull me or the other driver from the wreckage. I spent 20+ years in the US Navy and witnessed collisions at sea and many other dangerous events. Haphazard and dangerous ship handling WILL NOT STOP WHALING. It will endanger people's lives on the both ships and possibly the lives of rescuers that would have to respond in the event one of the ships was damage and began taking on water. All this event does is show the lack of human compassion on the part of the anti-whaling activists. I can't think of a better way to turn people off your cause than to show you care more for whales than humans. You whine about the "cruel Japs" and that the Steve Irwin should keep doing these acts. You really want to stop whaling by the Japanese? DO something that really shows what is happening. I spent many years in Japan and have been to many restaurants that serve Whale. Get out your cameras. Go to these places. Get the videos of the "Research" results on your plate for which you are paying 1200 yen for two slices of whale on rice. Then spread that viral video through the net. Make the statement and get the international world behind your cause. Keep supporting the near terrorist type acts of the Sea Sheperd folks and you will keep your cause on the far left fringes of public opion and never get the world wide support it deserves. By the way, I hope all you whale lovers are vegetarians and not just hypocritical meat eaters. Why would you think it's ok to protect one species while chowing down on the ground up flesh of some poor bovine (that's a cow for some of you). Sounds like animal racism to me.

It is really this easy - The Sea Sheppard’s are willing to die for their convictions so sink the Japanese factory ship and then go to jail for a couple of years. The Sea Sheppard’s win and still live, the whales win, and the Japanese whaling industry dies. Ultimately - The world wins!

By the way, save the crew members of the sinking Japanese ship...

Me

Smoking is legal, smokers (and non-smokers) have free choice, the activity takes place within a society that functions under a system of written and enforcable laws. Eating meat can be morally sanctioned, even by most vegetarians, if the animal is raised with respect and killed in a humane fashion. Killiing whales satisfies NONE of these criteria. The activity cannot be justified by any ethical, moral or legal argument. "Research" is a despicable excuse for the wantant slaughtering of these magnificent creatures. It truly belittles the Japanese nation to encourage and support this action.

The captain prob. should have his license pulled but don't think this will acconplish anything. I have a masters license and have since retired from the sea so I'm fine with sighting on as captain for the Sea Shepards. Pull my license ... I'm not using it ... and there are plenty more like me in line. It's time to make a stand.

Keith (who spent 20+ years in the US Navy and witnessed collisions at sea and many other dangerous events.) I can see your military reasoning but there has been evidence in recent years of the intelligence of whales species with particular species like the Humpback whale coming under scrutiny. The immediate comparison is the whale brain to the human brain ,both share a strong similarity.
Computer generated models presented in recent years by Ryujii Suzuki and john Buck show show whale songs are hierarchical .>Up until now ONLY HUMANS have been thought to have this ability.We are talking about a defined LANGUAGE.A simpler but DEFINED LANGUAGE.
They are a lot smarter than we think so why decimate them all.?
Japan is justifying the slaughter under the absurd excuse of "research."
The whalers are trying to compensate for losses caused by Sea Shepherd interventions in the Southern Ocean in December 2008 and January and February 2009. The Japanese Fisheries Agency reported to the media that the environmentalist group Sea Shepherd made it impossible for the whaling vessels to operate on 16 days of the 100-day whale hunt.
The six ships caught 679 Minke and one fin whale on the mission, the agency said. These numbers were well below the planned haul of between 765 and 935 of the giant mammals.
The whalers need to kill at least 765 whales to break even. As a result they suffered losses of tens of millions of dollars.
The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin and her crew chased and shut down the whaling operations for more than five weeks. Japan claims 16 days but that would mean that they would have fallen only 128 whales short of their set quota based on an average kill of 8 whales per day. The whalers failed to reach their set quota by 305 which means that Sea Shepherd prevented whaling activities for 38 days which validates the Sea Shepherd claim that whaling was shut down for five and a half weeks - not 16 days as Japan claims.

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH! When everyone gets the same guts to take on these Japanese, who are devoid of ANY MORAL FIBER, then you get to criticize the Steve Irwin, AND his Captain. With all due respect to the others who have contributed and have a Captain license, HOW DARE YOU! The suffering (30 minutes from the time one animal was hit and then brought aboard) is disgusting. Sometimes the ends justifies the means! Anyone of any PROFESSIONAL position KNOWS this! I support the Captain of the Steve Irwin and his INFORMED crew! These folks knew what they signed on for! I can't even watch any of the footage from the show with my 6 year old around! Doesn't that mean enough regarding this issue? It's always easy to criticize others...when you are on the outside looking in. I don't play the Lottery, but maybe I should start so I can send 50% of my winnings to the Sea Shepard organization...it beats paying US taxes!

As a former Coast Guardsman and also a lover of Dolphins and wales.. I can in no way support such a violation of the international Accords on the Seas and Ships who sail the seas. What the Sea Shepherd was illegal. the Cap't and crew must be arrested and held, put on trial and sent to prison. But then so must the crews of the illegal whalers who hunt wales in off limited areas.
Violence is never an answer. Funny.. I've seen in Portland the dummy Peta nuts who think it's ok to kill humans or to see humans suffer from major diseases..yet they will go to their own deaths to protect a monkey or rat...!

Hey. use common sense.. at Sea if you ram a ship on purpose that can be called piracy. the military should've seized the Sea Shepherd!

What about whales, seals, and even polar bears killed by the Inuit for consumption? Its OK because they are native peoples, but if your a 'Jap' then you are a whale murderer.

As much as I hate to admit it, the truth is very simple. The Japanese are whalers. THEY ARE NOT RESEARCHERS. That a lot of bull to say they are out there doing research. Where are the results of this research? I bet that if the law said that they could not sell the meat, but had to donate it to people, there would be no research going on. We want to be eco minded, but we ignore the simplest truisms. So here what I suggest that the Japan government do. Reimburse the whalers for their cost of "doing" research and make them donate the meat from the whales to starving people. Further, the Japanese researchers should not be allowed to make a profit from their research with the whale meat. Problem solved.

Paul put his crew at risk, especially the ones he placed at the bow...that was stupid. If sea combat is the name of this game, get some experts trained in ship to ship engagements from the inventory of our retired Navy/Coast Guard. Sad to see and have to say, the Japanese crews out-sailed the Steve Irwin crew. The on-bridge films of the lack of communication and gross immaturity/ maudlin reactions of the Steve Irwin's captain and first and second mates was painful to watch. Dump the geeks and get some vets.

I'm all for the intent of stopping the whale kills, but get the expertise and equipment necessary to the task.