Whaler ship cuts USS PETA Batboat in two

[SIK1]

lol, and SS is the one with the pirate flag.

Yes, and they are the ones committing the acts of violence as well.

[TwinEng]

Well it's not quite that simple.  Here is a cut and paste:

The term “vessel restricted in her ability to manoeuvre” means a vessel which from the nature of her work is restricted in her ability to manoeuvre as required by these Rules and is therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel. The term “vessels restricted in their ability to manoeuvre” shall include:
(i) a vessel engaged in laying, servicing or picking up a navigation mark, submarine cable or pipeline;
(ii) a vessel engaged in dredging, surveying or underwater operations;
(iii) a vessel engaged in replenishment or transferring persons, provisions or cargo while underway;
(iv) a vessel engaged in the launching or recovery of aircraft;
(v) a vessel engaged in mine clearance operations;
(vi) a vessel engaged in a towing operation such as severely restricts the towing vessel and her tow in their ability to deviate from their course.

The whaling vessel isn't considered as restricted in this case.  Clearly with the hard turn to starboard to ram the batboat, she has fair manoeuvre capablity.  The whaling ship is even smaller than a destroyer, and those turn on a dime.

Whaling vessel at fault.

That is not at all true.  Any power driven boat is supposed to give way to a fishing boat that engaged in fishing.   That is right there in the Maritime rules.

Your analysis is clearly both bogus and biased.

.

[DREDger]

That is not at all true.  Any power driven boat is supposed to give way to a fishing boat that engaged in fishing.   That is right there in the Maritime rules.

That is true, however a boat engaged in fishing is defined as follows:

The term “vessel engaged in fishing” means any vessel fishing with nets, lines, trawls or other fishing apparatus which restrict manoeuvrability, but does not include a vessel fishing with trolling lines or other fishing apparatus which do not restrict manoeuvrability.

The whaling ship was actually a security ship, and not engaged in any fishing activity at time of collision.

The whaling ship intentionally rammed the batboat, that is evident from both videos

[DrDea]

What seems evident is your bias in this.Looking at the films is obvious to anyone with a clue that the bat boat was looking for trouble and they found it in spades. Now they want to cry foul.

[DREDger]

What seems evident is your bias in this.Looking at the films is obvious to anyone with a clue that the bat boat was looking for trouble and they found it in spades. Now they want to cry foul.

If you want to talk about bias, lets refer to your post here.  I have an opinion on the matter but I draw the line at casting disparaging remarks against others:

If you cant see the morons werent looking to get a you tube clip your a bigger moron than they are. Wow. Talk about colossal failure.

The whaling ship intentionally rammed the batboat, it is evident from the videos.  Whether the batboat guys deserved it is another matter.  Ramminga smaller boat is a use of deadly force.

[ToeTag]

Rules of the Sea
Right of way

Boats Overtaking – A power boat overtaking another power boat is the “burdened” boat and must take evasive action
keeping clear astern of the “privileged” boat to avoid collision. If there is room the overtaking boat may pass to port of the
“privileged” boat and call out “passing to port.”

The batboat is clearly overtaking another powered boat.  It should have passed on the port side.  The batboat was on the starboard side. 

Maybe I missunderstood the post but right of way means the boat on the "right" has the right of way. and the whaling ship did ram them and violated the rules.  However the small boat's captain should be jailed for intentionally putting peoples lives at risk.  There was no excuse for getting that close to a large ship and expecting them to be able to avoid them.

[SunBat]

I am so much looking forward to the next Whale Wars series.  Putting a bunch of undisciplined, birkenstock-wearing, vegan, granola-head, hippies on a boat in the Southern Ocean and pitting them against experienced, disciplined seamen is some of the best entertainment I have witnessed in my life.  I watch it purely for the purpose of seeing what idiots they can make out of themselves. 

(The whales are in no danger of becoming extinct, the best way to control and ensure the whale's existence is for them to be managed to guarantee profitability.) 

[DrDea]

 They put themselves in the path of the whaler. From the film,you can see it was NOT just sitting there idleing. Now you can believe that that batboat couldnt get out of the way if it wanted to,and you can spout off all the right of way bs you want.The batboat was there to hinder the whaler,it failed. These are people that fly a pirate flag when they ram ships. You DID see that film didnt you dredger? Where they sideswiped a whaler,that was on their right?

[DrDea]

 From Bob Barker himself.

"This will probably get more notice for what they're trying to do out there than anything in a long time, so it has a bright side," Barker said. "I absolutely continue to support them, more so than ever, in good times and bad."

http://blog.al.com/scenesource/2010/01/bob_barkers_namesake_boat_resc.html
 They got their attention.Thats what this was all about. A big viewer YouTube video.

[Anaxogoras]

(The whales are in no danger of becoming extinct, the best way to control and ensure the whale's existence is for them to be managed to guarantee profitability.) 

That's been tried before. 

[DrDea]

30 seconds into this clip,you can see the boat filming is going right to left. If anything,and its next to impossible to tell from this video,the whaler looks to be going slightly to the left at the moment of impact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycyCfK14axw
 Again,its hard to tell from these videos what was going on but what is clear is the batboat put its crew in a dangerous position and it bit them in the ass.

[SunBat]

That's been tried before. 

Yep. And the fact that you can drive to the store and buy fish is a testament to the fact that it works. 

[Anaxogoras]

Yep. And the fact that you can drive to the store and buy fish is a testament to the fact that it works.  

Give it a few more decades.  The United States generally imposes responsible management on our own fisheries, usually with decisions that no one is happy with, but the vast majority of fish we eat come from international waters (or from countries that don't give a damn) that are being raped and violated every day.  The upshot is that our own fishermen find it harder and harder to make a living...  Is salmon season going to open on the west coast this Spring?

Sorry for the hijack.

[DREDger]

Lets look at this a different way with a hypothetical.

Lets say a group of protesters is against a farmer harvesting tomatoes for whatever reason.  The protesters trespass, they try to interfere with harvesting, they even go so far as to vandalize the farmers combines.

Now, does the farmer now have the right to run over this group of protesters with his pickup truck?

If you don't believe the whaling ship made a hard turn to starboard to ram the batboat, then there is no point in discussing.  Because with this belief, then of course the whalers are not at fault for anything, the batboat purposely 'jumped' in front of them.

I don't see it that way.  To me it appears the batboat was placing itself close, then the whaler purposely turned starboard to facilitate a ram.  While the batboat 'greenies' are undoubtedly guilty of all sorts of maritime violations, including using speedboats to violate the 'spirit' of maritime rights of way, the whalers are guilty of using their vessel in a purposeful act of deadly force.

[kilo2]

We also don't know what happened before hand. Watching the previous episodes they use to cut in front of the whale boats all the time and the

whaling ship would turn hard to avoid them. It could have been a accident maybe thinking that the batboat was going to keep moving instead of

stopping in front of them. Also how many times has the sea shepperd rammed a whaling boat? to me they got what they had coming.