http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38339576/ns/world_news-africa At first, my skeptical side thought it might be photoshopped, but looks to be a legit story.
That first photo looks a bit odd in that the guy at the helm seems totally oblivous to the whale so close to his boat. I don't doubt the story but it looks like the first photo might have been doctored for a little added sensationalism.
Seems Legit (different news source) http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/07/21/south.africa.whale.boat/index.html?hpt=T2
I know what you mean, I think I would have been hitting the deck or going overboard if that thing was coming at me.
You would have thought the same thing from the crew of the Ady Gil just as they were about to rammed but from the video footage they didn't react in any such manner.
I know. I couldn't understand why they just sat there, but I think it was arrogance. They were mocking the Japanese ship right up to the point where they were rammed. I believe wholeheartedly they were rammed deliberately and I believe in their efforts to stop the whaling, but I think the Ady Gil crew should have not allowed that ship to get so close. Obviously, they've never seen the movie, "Duel." Big wins.
They had cut the engines just before that because they were almost out of fuel and were going to have to wait for 2 or 3 days out there for the Steve Irwin boat to get to them and refuel them. Until it was too late to restart the engines, they thought it was just going to be a near-miss. For the Bob Barker to have refueled them in a previous episode they said it is a process that takes approx. 4 hrs. Bob Barker boat was on the tail of the factory ship and couldn't afford to lose the 4 hrs and let the "factory ship" (Nishin Maru ?) get out of range. The decision was made by the "Admiral" on the Steve Irwin boat that the Ady Gil would conserve fuel and just hang out and wait for them to come through, 600 miles away though.
I wonder why they didn't just move out of the area away from the Japanese fleet. Surely, they never thought they'd get rammed, but one can never underestimate an adversary.
The other harpoon vessels had moved off, and the last one looked like it was going away, then it turned and came back again... <shrug> I don't know.... I'm just really glad no one was seriously hurt on the Ady Gil. It almost killed DH the other night, he was channel surfing and came across a show about Earthrace (Ady Gils race around the world) on the Smithsonian channel, then I had to point out to DH that we don't get that channel! LOL
yeah....that pi$$ed me off......so wanted to watch the special on Earthrace and it's world record run prior to it being bought by the Sea Shepards and turned into the Ady Gil.
ABC News just did a story on it and the couple that got rammed thought the whale was just having fun with them.
