Whaler ship cuts USS PETA Batboat in two

[Sundowner]

Looks to me like the batboat cut in front of the whaler bow.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/3961607/protest-ship-smashed-in-whaling-clash

SYDNEY —  A conservation group's boat had its bow sheared off and was in danger of sinking as it took on water Wednesday after it was struck by a Japanese whaling ship in the frigid waters of Antarctica, the group said.

The boat's six crew members were safely transferred to another of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's vessels, the newly commissioned Bob Barker. The boat is named for the American game show host who donated $5 million to buy it.

The clash was the most serious in the past several years, during which the Sea Shepherd has sent vessels into far-southern waters to try to harass the Japanese fleet into ceasing its annual whale hunt.....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,582115,00.html?test=latestnews

Regards,
Sun

[Shuffler]

Those people are endangering lives. PITA is full of mental midgets like that.

[crazyivan]

Holy Hotards Batman! I swear if not for the black tights and cape. I would've thought they were pirates arrr.  Very piss poor driving  there Robin. Your fired!

[DrDea]

 I just had to  when I saw this.They tried to say that the ship wasnt moving but you can CLEARLY see the engines pumping water out the back. Epic Fail.

[b4o2s9s]

Haha they got exactly what they deserved. They are throwing stink bombs and getting ropes wrapped in propellers. So the fishing vessel has every right to do what it needs to stop them.


                                                                                

[Maverick]

The claim is that the fishing boat rammed them. That makes as much sense as the chinese claiming a turbo prop  plane caught and rammed a supersonic fighter.

I hope that frickin speed boat sank.

[Dragon]

How can the bigger boat ram the smaller one?  Law on the water is the bigger boat always has the right of way.  This is just an example of why.  The smaller boat will almost always loose.

It sucks that the Earthrace had to be the one getting crushed though.

[DREDger]

Looked to me like the batboat was idling and the whale boat turned in and rammed it.

[Motherland]

The 'Sea Shepherd' people have a history of intentionally injuring themselves and blaming it on the whalers...

[bagrat]

Looked to me like the batboat was idling and the whale boat turned in and rammed it.

yup, either that or the protest boat pulled the ol' "ill stop infront of you and your not supposed to run me over" trick


besides they hav to save the whales..........WTF! is that unicorn doin there

[Beefcake]

Yeah...like that one episode where the captain "got shot" or the one where they boarded a boat and then claimed the Whalers captured them and were holding them unlawfully. God bless South Park for making this show funny to watch.

[BoilerDown]

The 'Sea Shepherd' people have a history of intentionally injuring themselves and blaming it on the whalers...

See the southpark episode on the subject  

In any event, at first it looked like the "batboat" was dead in the water, but close to the collision you can see that its moving forward, more or less matching the course of the whaling ship but at a slightly slower speed.  Then they came together.  It seems to me its only not the environmentalists fault if they had no steering.  Otherwise the collision is avoided if they merely veer right.

Hopefully Whale Wars won't make me watch 10 episodes of boredom before they get to this episode.

Edit: after watching it 3 more times, they were clearly on a collision course, but the environmentalist boat was moving forward and failed to steer out of the way.  They may have even been steering slightly left.  Regardless of who intended to collide, it was a perfectly executed crash in that no one got hurt and the small boat was disabled.  Either the whalers wanted to ram them to stop the harassment or the environmentalists wanted some free pub and managed to get it without anyone getting hurt.  Good clean high seas drama either way imo.

[killjoy1]

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. 

[Vulcan]

Looked to me like the batboat was idling and the whale boat turned in and rammed it.

Watch the video carefully, the batboat moved slowly in on starboard, at the end of the video you can see the whaler was turning hard to port, the batboat then accelerated into it's path.

Clearly staged by the greenies. So now we have bat guano polluting our southern oceans.

[Yossarian]

The whalers still suck.