Japanese whaling ship cripples conservation boat in crash

1/2
12 April 2012

A conservation group says one of its boat had its bow sheared off and was taking on water after hitting a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctica today.

The six crew members about the speedboat, Ady Gil, were rescued. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society claims the boat was rammed by the Shonan Maru near Commonwealth Bay.

Locky Maclean, the first officer of the society's lead ship, said one crewman from New Zealand appeared to have two cracked ribs but the others were uninjured.

Sea Shepherd sends boats to Antarctic waters each southern summer to try to stop the Japanese fleet killing whales under what it calls a scientific whaling programme. Conservationists say the programme is a front for commercial whaling.

The group accused the Japanese ship of deliberately ramming the Ady Gil. "The Shonan Maru made a course correction and plowed directly into the front end of the boat," said first officer Maclean. The Institute of Cetacean Research, the Japanese government-linked body that carries out whale hunts, denied the claim.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in