On January 6, 2010 the newest vessel in the Sea Shepperdâ??s anti-whaling fleet was involved in a collision with a Japanese vessel and lost to sea. The Sea Shepperdâ??s â??Ady Gilâ?? entered the path of the Japanese â??ShÅnan Maru 2â?², which was engaged in security and support for the whaling fleet, and was unavoidably struck on her port side near her bow. Both groups took footage of the incident and claims that the other is responsible, arguing that the opposing skipper took unnecessary, dangerous maneuvers. Fortunately no-one was killed as a result of the accident, however one of the Ady Gillâ??s crew members sustained a rib injury. Despite the lack of legal action taken place since, analysis done by Captain Jim Varney, an experienced maritime accident investigator and Captain Tim Wilson from the New Zealand Maritime School agreed that the Ady Gil was accelerating when it was hit by the Japanese ship and moved into the Japanese boatâ??s path. Check out a video of the analysis here .
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Sea Sheppherd’s lose $1.5 million vessel
Exploding seal population devastates fish stocks
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Despite what animal rights organizations and radical activists would have you believe, the harp seal is not an endangered animal nor is it’s population on the decline. Since the 1970’s the population of harp seals in the North Atlantic has not only increased, it has tripled. The last survey conducted by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans reported the harp seal population at a record high 5.8 million animals.
With worldwide attention being brought to the collapse of the North Atlantic fish stocks by the media and by documentaries such as ‘The End of the Line” , it is crucial to identify one of the largest consumers and threats to the recovery of the stocks. Each harp seal consumes between 1 and 1.4 metric tonnes of fish each year, and with the exploding population of 5.8 million animals that translates to a consumption of at least 6 million metric tonnes of fish each year. This means that now while the fish stocks are in crisis, the record breaking seal population is consuming more fish than ever before in recorded history, and is not only a threat to the fish, but to its own sustainability.
