The Sea Shepherd's anti-whaling speedboat Ady Gill has sunk after it was sliced in two by a Japanese whaling vessel during a clash in the Southern Ocean on Wednesday.

Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson told ABC News Breakfast the Ady Gill went down shortly before 3:30am AEDT while it was being towed to a French research base by the group's Bob Barker boat.

"I think they were towing for about six or seven hours," he said.

"Even the act of towing was taking more water on. The Japanese vessel had cut the vessel completely in half and made it unseaworthy."

Six Sea Shepherd crew members were almost thrown overboard and one crew member suffered broken ribs when the Japanese whaling security ship, the Shonan Maru 2, ploughed through the bow of the high-tech Ady Gill on Wednesday.

Both the Japanese whalers and the Sea Shepherd crew blame each other for the incident, which happened in Antarctic waters.

But Mr Watson has defended his crew and says the risk of dying on the high seas is worth it if it allows the group to save whales.

"My crew are well aware of the risks that we have to take to protect whales down here. I think those risks are worth taking," he said.

"I can tell you now that if the oceans die, civilisations collapse and we all die.

"People die everyday to protect oil wells and real estate and we call them heroes and pin medals on them. I think protecting the diversity of oceans... is a far more noble cause."

http://www.seashepherd.org/Also, see the movie "The Cove" about Japanese slaughtering of dolphins.

NOT AGAIN!

The Japanese actions are criminal - they are well known for this kind of attack or attempting to destroy anyone who get in the way of their "research"...the ultimate aim of which is to kill whales...they constantly ignore all calls to stop whaling.

I know the anti-whaling lobby does get involvedin dangerous activities as well, but to actually ram another ship or boat on the high seas igoring the peril caused to life and limb is nothing short of piracy - and they should be treated as such.

To be totally even handed of course this must also apply if the greens commit similar acts.

Yeah - but the Greenpeace boat is one of the fastest in the world. How did a big whaler sneak up on it?

I saw the footage and it looked like Greenpeace were trying to block the whaler and mistimed their run.

That doesn't mean I condone whaling, but I can smell bullshit.

There is no way the smaller boat was stationary or going backwards.

If you watch the whale wars series you will see that the sea shepherds will do just about anything to intimidate the whalers, including ramming their boat last year. Paul Watson is also very good at manipulating the media and getting attention, for example claiming to have been shot by the whalers a couple of years ago while wearing a bullet proof vest.

I think these sea shepherd guys are good for standing up and doing something substantial to stop the whalers but they shouldnt be surprised by any retaliation.

Thanks for the video, I might watch that movie"the cove"

The Japanese whaling vessel had many options to avoid collision , slow down, stop, turn to left or right. The Japanese boat action sure looked deliberate to me.

Maybe the Sea Shepard should not have been so close to begin with...There are traffic laws for ships at sea and its called Rules of the Road...and I am pretty sure that the Sea Shepard broke many of these...The Japanese views on whaling may not be popular but that doesn't give people the right to try and will their views onto them by harassing them and putting their lives in danger.

The Ocean could use more protectors. Its being used as a garbage dump and HUge mile long nets snag anything that lives for the slaughter. An area of the Pacific ocean twice the size of the US is a plastic soup with 100 million tons of plastic ,about 2.5 percent of all plastic made by man since 1950. But man is civilized and intelligent ahemmm

The sharks could use some more chum from all those fruit loops who decided to play chicken with a ship bigger than theirs.

Ahhh all the would be could be fuckin lawyers are out of the wood work

And bless my cotton picken sox they are all experts on the laws of the high sea as well

The facts of the matter are

1. The Japs (no racist slur intended) are gonna go whaling

2. The "Steve E & Sea Shepard" and Co. are gonna try and stop em

3. The whaling is illegal

4. Both sides will do what they can to stop the other

5. The Jap are NOT an innocent party here

6. They will and are doing what ever they can to kill whales.

If you are interested in this, follow the whole hunt not just the odd incident to prove how expert you are !!!!

For the resord this has been going one for weeks now

To the sea lawyers-Rule 2 Responsibility, Rules of the Road

(a) Nothing in these Rules shall exonerate any vessel, or the owner, master, or crew thereof, from the consequences of any neglect to comply with these Rules or of the neglect of any precaution which may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, or by the special circumstances of the case.

( In construing and complying with these Rules due regard shall be had to all dangers of navigation and collision and to any special circumstances,ment including the limitations of the vessels involved, which may make a departure from these Rules necessary to avoid immediate danger.

This is often referred to unofficially as the "Rule of Good Seamanship" or the "General Prudential Rule."

It clear that the Japanese vesel Captain did not exorcise good judgment or heed the "General Prudential Rule."

Futher, the Ady Gill was "showing her Red" port side, the Japanese vessel was to obligated to give way.

**** me destroying that boat is a crime, bloody beauty.

Blames on both sides for that collision, stubbornness at its best.

No need what so ever for the Japanese to carry on Whaling.

It's such a crime to kill whales, they are intelligent, beautiful, and deserve our respect.

*sigh*

If a whale is hit by an exploding harpoon near Antarctica and the world doesn’t have a way to witness that, does it make a sound?

Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton, sent the following reaction:]

Yes, it has a sound. Because the question about a tree falling in the forest assumed that there are no sentient being able to hear it fall. But whales are sentient beings, and they make sounds that can communicate through the water over a great distance. But even if the whale was alone it can hear the harpoon and feel its own agony, as studies have shown that harpooned whales often die slowly.