Sea Shepherd Australia Releases Collision Statement

Previously unreleased high quality footage of the exact moment that the Nishhin Maru pushed the Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker into the South Korean fuel tanker, the Sun Laurel, has just been received and released by Sea Shepherd Australia.

The terrifying sound of impact can clearly be heard from approximately 2 minutes 24 seconds into the clip, as the footage shows the 8,000 tonne Japanese whaling fleet’s factory vessel crashing down on the monkey deck of the Bob Barker, then pushing the Sea Shepherd ship into the whaling fleet’s fuel tanker (orange vessel) and destroying equipment on the Bob Barker including masts, radar and navigation lights, and causing structural damage to its decks.  The destruction of these high-voltage electrical devices next to a fuel tanker had the potential to cause a massive explosion, but luckily did not.

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Sea Shepherd Australia has released an official response to the collision incident, which details the horrific ramming of three Sea Shepherd ships, the Bob Barker, Steve Irwin and Sam Simon, as well as the Japanese whaling fleet’s fuel tanker, the Sun Laurel. In it, Sea Shepherd Australia states:

“Collisions cannot be provoked and there is no way a ship’s captain can excuse ramming four ships with claims of provocation. The Nisshin Maru’s Captain Tomoyuki Ogawa knew exactly what he was doing when he struck the Sea Shepherd ships and the Sun Laurel.  He just considered his own refueling operation worth risking the safety and lives of over one hundred of our crew, a dozen of the Sun Laurel’s crew, as well as his own crew on the Nisshin Maru.”

Click here to read the Full Operation Zero Tolerance Collision Statement