Sympathy cash 'pours in' for loss of Ady Gil

News Com Au 11/01/2010

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?

Sea Shepherd recruits Aussie starlet Isabel Lucas for TV campaign

News Com Au 08/01/2010

JAPANESE authorities have criticised the environmental activist group Sea Shepherd for abandoning a vessel at sea, apparently leaking fuel and debris.

The Ady Gil was crippled in a collision with a Japanese whaling ship in the Southern Ocean on Wednesday.

Sea Shepherd spokespeople have repeatedly claimed the boat had sunk, and today the activist group abandoned the scene.

But Japanese authorities have released photographs which show the Ady Gil wreckage is still afloat in pristine Antarctic waters.

The official Institute of Cetacean Research said an oily substance thought to be fuel was leaking from the wreckage, "raising concerns that Sea Shepherd is willfully polluting the Antarctic environment''.

A Japanese vessel salvaged part of the severed Ady Gil hull and some arrows.

The institute called on Australia and other countries to prevent Sea Shepherd's "vicious'' sabotage of the whaling fleet.

Meanwhile Australian authorities have officially told Japan to stop whaling in the wake of a dramatic high-seas clash.

But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has warned the anti-whaling push could harm relations with Japan, which is Australia's biggest export market.

Australia's acting ambassador in Tokyo yesterday spoke to the Japanese Government and to whaling officials.

Japanese sailors accused of ramming anti-whaling vessel

News Com Au 07/01/2010 

SEA Shepherd captain Paul Watson today accused Japanese whalers of a high seas hit-and-run, disputing claims a collision with one of its speedboats was accidental.

Six crew members aboard the anti-whaling ship Ady Gil were rescued, one with broken ribs, after it and the Japanese whalers' ship the Shonan Maru 2 collided in remote Antarctic waters.

The high-tech trimaran was ripped apart in the collision.

Japan's Fisheries Agency has blamed the Ady Gil for the crash, saying it slowed suddenly while crossing in front of the Shonan Maru.

But Mr Watson today labelled the claim ridiculous, saying the whaling ship deliberately rammed the boat in a high seas "hit and run".

"The Ady Gil was stationary at the time it was struck," Mr Watson said on Macquarie Radio.

Conservationists Clash With Japanese Whalers in Southern Ocean

VOA News 06/01/2010

An environmental group says one of its boats was split in two and taking on water after a collision with a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctica.

An environmental group says one of its boats was split in two and taking on water after a collision with a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctica.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says one of its boats, the Ady Gil, a sleek high-technology speed boat, was rammed and sliced in half by a Japanese ship, the Shonan Maru.

All six crew members were unharmed and were rescued as the boat began taking on water near Commonwealth Bay in Antarctica.

The Sea Shepherd group claims it was the victim of unprovoked aggression and indicates that it will fight back.

The captain of the organization's flagship vessel, Paul Watson, says his colleagues are lucky to be alive.

"When the skipper on the Ady Gil saw the Shonan Maru moving in to strike him, he put his engines in reverse to get out of the way, which probably saved some of his crew but it ripped the front end of the vessel off and caused catastrophic damage to the Ady Gil," explained Watson. "The Ady Gil then put out a distress signal, a mayday signal, which was ignored and not acknowledged by the Japanese and then they sped away from the scene of this incident."