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Whale Wars

January 6, 2010 by · Comments Off on Whale Wars 

ady-gil-200-x-225Whale Wars:If Wednesday’s near-fatal clash between Japanese whalers and activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is any indicator, the upcoming third season of Animal Planet’s ‘Whale Wars‘ is going to be a doozy.

Six members of Sea Shepherd, the organization featured regularly on the Animal Planet show, were rescued in the Antarctic after their boat, the Ady Gil, was rammed and severely damaged by a Japanese whaling vessel.

One member of the crew suffered minor injuries in the form of cracked ribs, but as you can see from this YouTube video featuring footage obtained by the Associated Press, the outcome could have been far worse.

The Ady Gil, which is the Sea Shepherd’s new trimaran, was flanking the whaling boat, the Shonan Maru 2, in what appears to be the usual cat-and-mouse game between the two sides.

However, this time the boats got too close, and the much larger Shonan Maru ended up shearing off the bow of the Ady Gil.

“It was aiming at the crew’s command quarters, which could have certainly killed somebody, Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson told the AP.

Of course, in this heated battled, stories differ on each side — the Shonan Maru crew claims the Ady Gil was moving toward their ship with an intent to ram, but misjudged the point of impact.

Take a look and decide for yourself.

Animal Planet officials are set to release a statement regarding the matter later on Wednesday.

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