IT lost a boat worth $2 million, but hundreds of thousands of dollars have poured into the coffers of controversial protest group Sea Shepherd since their ship Ady Gil was allegedly rammed and sunk by a Japanese whaler.
The group's leader Captain Paul Watson today said $170,000 was pledged in the first few hours after the incident while more was flooding in following the screening of a Sea Shepherd advert featuring Transformers actress Isabel Lucas.
And Mr Watson praised Australian Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard - who has been accused by Japan of inflaming public opinion and making diplomatic resolution of the whaling dispute harder to realise - for speaking out.
"Julia Gillard is the only politician who has had the courage to say something about the illegal activities Japan has undertaken; the rest of them are hiding behind Japan's kimonos as far as I can see," Mr Watson said.
He was especially scathing of New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully, who has said it was not the NZ Government's responsibility to send armed vessels to protect people "determined to break the law".
“The Minister of Foreign Affairs has made ignorant and unsubstantiated accusations and he should apologise and if he refuses to apologise he should be asked to resign," Mr Watson said.
"How dare he take Japan’s side in this issue against his own citizens?
"If a Sea Shepherd ship had rammed and sunk a Japanese ship, there would be no hesitation in sending a Navy ship to the Southern Ocean with a warrant of arrest."
Mr Watson said Sea Shepherd was grateful for public support of their activities after the loss of the Ady Gil off Antarctica on January 6 and hoped that the ship would be able to be replaced with the support of its original benefactor.
Sea Shepherd also posted new footage of the high seas collision to address claims made by retired naval commander Norman MacMillan that the Ady Gil was at fault.
Although sea law dictates that any vessel on the starboard, or right-hand side, of a ship has right of way, Mr MacMillan said he believed the Ady Gil left it too late to avoid a collision with the whaling ship Shonan Maru No 2, which rammed into the trimaran on January 6, cutting it in two.
Mr MacMillan told The Mercury that while he did not support the actions of the Japanese whalers, as a mariner he was able to interpret the incident through video footage.
"It appears that the Ady Gil was putting itself deliberately in front of the whale catcher to try and make it alter course," Mr MacMillan said.
Sea Shepherd have now released a three-minute, 20-second unedited video clip shot aboard the Ady Gil and posted on YouTube, showing crew members relaxing and joking on the roof of the boat until moments before the collision with the Shonan Maru 2.
The Japanese vessel is visible in the distance as Captain Pete Bethune asks crew member Laurens de Groot to relay instructions to have the Ady Gil stopped.
Two minutes into the clip, the long-range acoustic device aboard the Shonan Maru 2 can be heard.
The trio watches unconcerned and takes photographs as the ship approaches and appears to turn towards them with its water cannons aimed at the Ady Gil.
Seconds before the collision the men start yelling.
The footage ends a split second before the impact as the cameraman scrambles clear.
- With The Australian and The Mercury
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