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Video: Last Moments aboard Ady Gil before rammed by Japanese whaling ship

by Takver - Australia Indymedia
The last three minutes on board the Sea Shepherd advanced tri-maran powerboat, the Ady Gil, before it was rammed by the Japanese whaling security vessel the Shonan Maru 2, shows the Sea Shepherd volunteers relaxing. 3 harpoon vessels had already passed with no incident, lulling the crew into a false sense of security that the last vessel would also observe maritime navigation rules, but instead turned directly towards them purposefully ramming and cutting their ship in two and threatening their lives.
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At 2mins 30 sec and again at 3 mins into this video, which stops at 3:20 just before initial impact, the Shonan Maru turns to starboard putting both vessels on a collision course.

The video shows the volunteer crew discussing their fuel situation, relaxing, and farewelling their friends on the Sea Shepherd vessel, the Bob Barker.

Maritime navigation regulations state that the Shonan Maru should give way to ships off its starboard bow.

The master of the ship with right of way needs to continue on the same course and speed. Evasive action should only be taken by the master of the ship with right of way if collision is imminent.

The Ady Gil was not designed for quick maneuverability at low speed, it could only go backwards and forwards in this type of situation.

It was only at the point of when the ships were about to collide that the crew realized what was going to happen, and the prop wash shows the ship gunning its engines right before collision. After the collision the Ady Gil moves itself backwards, meaning the apparent prop wash was most likely an attempt at moving the Ady Gil out of the path of the Shonan Maru 2.

The video shows the Shonan Maru 2 going out of its way to get into the path of the Ady Gil, and the collision that resulted that threatened the lives of the 6 Sea Shepherd volunteers on board.

OffIcial investions have commenced in New Zealand, the flag state for the Ady Gil, and n Australia who is responsible for search and rescue where the collision ocurred. Requests have been made to Japan for an official investigation and to cooperate with the other investigations.
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by Johnny Ramone
The Ady Gil turned on it's forward thrust a few seconds prior to the collision, making the collision unavoidable. It is obvious that the SM2 was going in for a close pass to hit the AG with their LRAD and water cannons, but did not intend to collide. They had every right to do the close pass since the AG had been taking hostile actions against them with prop foulers, lasers, and projectiles. Maybe the person at the controls on the AG meant to go in reverse. But in the ICR video (available here http://www.icrwhale.org/gpandsea.htm ) it can clearly be seen that the AG turned on it's forward thrust just prior to the collision, putting it's bow underneath the bow of the much larger SM2 and causing it to be sheared off. It is clearly the AG's fault.

When the AG crew shout "Whoa! Whoa!" near the end of the video, they are shouting to their own crew member who had turned on the forward thrust. In the ICR video they are clearly relaxed and unconcerned until the last few seconds prior to the collision, when their crew man turned on the forward thrust.
by elly
Itis abundantly clearby intenational laws that the Japanese whaling fleet is the illegal poacher invading the whale sanctuary of the Southern Oceans. It does not have a legal right to be in the entire area it is occupyiLet us look at the laws they are breaking, 1)IWC---- the international whaling commissions moratorium on commercial whaling, 2) CITES--- the United Nations resolution to protect endangered species, Souhern Ocean Whale Sanctury, the worlds cumulative democracy to give sancturary to the whales after centuries of killing them to near extinction, 4) EEZ, The Australian, French Economic Exclusion Zones where those two countries forbid the killing of any whales.

These laws are democratic and arrived at on thenece3sity ofprotectionof the endangered whales. Japan is there illegally. Further Japan is illegally pursuing the destruction of the SSCS as it has shot bullets , hand gernades, previous ramming, sophisticated military sound divices at the crews of Sea Shepherd and now has deliberately esculated the destruction by deliberately aiming and and smashing the Ady Gil, thusly sinking it. We see on the video the Shonan Maru 11 deliberately taking a sharp turn to starboard, which Ady Gil has right- of-way, and heading full speed to sink the vessel committing an act of piracy on the sanctuary seas. This is not unlike the wrongheaded practices that the world has come to know of Japanese Imperialism, and is reckless disreguard of the democracy of the world for protecting endangered species.
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