'Whale Wars' on Animal Planet HD - Page 33

As others have mentioned, the Ady Gil was not out of fuel, and it's engines were running.

From both videos, you could see the Ady Gil producing a wake, which means the engines were running.

Also, before towing the broken Ady Gil, they had to siphon the rest of the fuel out of it's cell.

Honestly, I don't care who fault it was, it made for funny TV. Morons on the HIGH SEAS playing chicken.

I think that pretty much equates to idling which I have been saying since I've seen the videos. Also, if everyone is on the deck there is no one driving the boat hence why it was not moving prior to being hit until the last second when they realize the Japanese were gunning for them and Peter must have scrambled to the controls but by then it was too late.

If the the craft was entirely adrift, then what is the point of rushing to the controls?...will extra fuel spontaneously appear in the tank to make maneuvering possible at the last minute? That right there should tell you that they had the means to maneuver and evade the whole time, but CHOSE not to.

The appearance of light turbulence along the rear of the Ady Gil indicates that not only was the engine operational, but generating light thrust (not just idling) to continue on a premeditated path...a path directly and deliberately across the approaching Jpn whaler ship.

Are you saying that the Ady Gil went in reverse at the last second? What video were you watching where you saw that?

Every video I have seen suggest the Ady Gil crew did not feel endangered and must have thought they were not going to be in anyones way. The Shonan Maru 2 was a good distance away and somehow managed to hit them even though there is all that open water out there. When you have this huge ship closing in on you unexpctedly and your at a standstill, are you going to know which way to go to try and avoid it when your in a state of panic at the last second? Whether he was going forward or reverse dosen't matter because it was the captain of the Shonan Maru 2 who was in control of that situation and was the only one that could have avoided the collision but chose not to, why would that surprise you?

Not so...Ady Gil only had to punch the throttle to entirely remove itself from the path of the whaling ship. It's not like the whaler ship could actually chase it in circles. It doesn't have that kind of maneuverability. Instead, they decided to keep a direct course that would intercept the whaler. Only when the whaler ship was literally on top of them, did they suddenly get the impression that moving would have been far preferable.

Any way you slice it, the Ady Gil was pointed entirely in the wrong direction to evade. They were pointed to intercept.

Once again, poor decision making on the SS's part. I love that footage before the accident.

Some a$$ slapping and blustering: "it was a massive f$%ing day. Oh LRAD, we're so scarred! Hahaha..."

Seconds later.... "oh $%^."

Priceless!


From all views I've seen the SM2 turned dramatically into the AG.

That's karma wasting no time in taking action.

Yep, the AG throttle was engaged so it also contributed to the contact. Maybe the SM2 would have only thrown a wake onto the AG. Another poor SS decision.

My impression on the short moment where the whaler ship steered toward the Ady Gil, was that it was a last ditch effort to break the intercept path by steering toward the opposite direction the Ady Gil was traveling, in hopes of skating by the other side of the craft. Unfortunately, there was just not enough clearance for this to be useful. The Ady Gil had left themselves in a spot where it would not have made much difference if the whaler ship turned left, right, or just went straight. There was going to be some sort of inevitable contact.

I don't think many will comprehend that. This is the same concept that racers use when there's an accident in front of them, right ? They're taught to aim where the car is *now* as by the time they get there it won't be there. Basically, swerve in the opposite direction that the other is going.

This show is great. It really puts your life in perspective- can you imagine having a job like that? Those people must be really passionate about he cause.

Apart from assigning guilt and fault, it really does seem to be a case of excellent combat strategy. Disable the most venerable ship in the fleet, inducing the Bob Barker to give up pursuit of Nissin Maru as they effect rescue of the Ady Gil crew. If they continue pursuit, then the Jpn whaler ship detains the Ady Gil crew and brings them to Japanese territory.

It was a 2-way checkmate, which emerged as a result of poor strategy by the SS (which left the Ady Gil vulnerable due to depleted fuel reserve and thus exploitable to enable the escape of the Nissin Maru). The Ady Gil then made the bet that sacrificing the ship would become a greater value to the cause than simply surrendering.

The crew of the Bob Barker almost seemed to be chomping at the bit for this to be a scenario of body recovery (as if to hunger for an opportunity for martyrdom), despite seeing the collision 1st hand and being able to assess that it was merely a nose-cone "adjustment" rather than a complete destruction. That is really telling in that the SS group really does have a cult-like environment in pursuit of its cause. Does it put it in the realm of plausibility that they would openly invite an "incident" at sea even at the risk of lives?...I believe so.

Paul Watson absolutely would. And I'm sure a good number of his underlings would as well.

The Japanese vessel was clearly the aggressor - and it's about time. They were well within their rights to disable the Ady Gil and it's remarkable that they were able to do so with relative precision.

I love how Watson still was calling the Ady Gil "our Harpoon Interceptor Vessel". Not a chance that the captain of the Ady Gil is dumb enough to steer that boat into the path of a harpoon. Not only is the practicality of that ridiculous, but that harpoon would slice through that Kevlar covered boat like it wasn't even there.

It sounds good though, doesn't it ? I'm sure when he told his crew about this "harpoon interceptor vessel", they all grinnned (to fake excitement) and looked around at each other to see the other's reactions. They're thinking "what does that mean ?" but believing that it will "stop whaling !".

Mr Hanky mentioned "cult". I'm convinced they're brainwashed to some degree myself (or just really, really passionate).

Have you ever seen a whale up close, as in ft. away? Have you ever studied whale behavior? Did you know they are one of the most intelligent mammals on the planet?

If your answer was yes to these questions then you know why these people are doing what they are doing.

I have, that doesn't give people the right to take the law into their own hands.

Agreed, it actually was some very good captain'ing (?) of that ship.

What kind of pissed me off with the SS'ers was how long it took them to deploy an inflatable. They wasted time trying to contact the Ady via radio, the Japanese via radio, freakin' Paul via satellite phone, all of this before deploying an inflatable.

Even when the captain told Peter to put a rescue team in the water, Peter responded with something like, "I'm turning the ship to get the Ady on the [whatever] side". Umm, just stop the freakin' ship and deploy the inflatable, it can get there much faster than you.

Even the Japanese were ready to go before the Bob Barker was.

One more thing, the crew of the Ady Gil were saying that they were sinking. They had a wave-runner on the back of the Ady, they could have easily have used it to transport the crew (one or two at a time) to the Barker.

I have no doubt that it was edited to look this way. And if so, it makes you wonder why Animal Planet doesn't do their best to portray SS in a more competent light.
The Ady obviously wasn't sinking so fast that they really needed to "hurry".

The Animal Planet editing also skipped rapidly passed determining just how much diesel fuel was recovered. It was only remarked that they recovered "some", but mixed mostly with water, which is merely suggestive (in the spirit that SS enjoys the most) but really tells us nothing.

Since nobody else will, why not? If they are that passionate about them why would you expect anything less?

The fact remains, when the "means" fall to the side of shady and scummy, don't expect people to still overwhelmingly root for those who only intended to reach the "ends". Arguably, such practices damage the cause just as much as help it.

That was pretty funny, weren't they celebrating? Then WHAMM you got knock da f out! Somehow this show turned into a comedy.

That puts it very well- "You got knock da F-out!" (per "Friday"). The Ady Gil captain also mockingly jokes about being "scared" by that sound beam device as he sits idly above deck while the Jpn whaler ship approaches (suggesting that he failed to pay due respect to his apparent "opponent" in a very real combat situation). He was strangely confident that he could just feign a "time-out" right in the middle of assault operations, when the reality is that there IS NO SUCH THING as "timeout" in real combat.

If you're not actively at the helm in such a situation, you either intend to surrender the ship or you intend to martyr yourself...and I didn't see him waving any white flags or enabling any typical "ship in distress" signals prior to the incident.

Just got caught up on the thread.

First - a warning to discuss the show, not attack other members. Any further violations will result in a ban from this thread.

Second - I'm surprised no one mentioned the hat that the one Ady Gil crew member was wearing. He's crying (literally) about being rammed while wearing a hat embroidered with "Stand By to Ram" .... their 'cluelessness' knows no bounds.

What about discussions of the "cause", i.e. who's right/wrong, etc, etc ?

Just don't attack other members, you whale-luva!

That's fine, as long as it isn't directed at other members - including veiled insults.