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Anti-whalers, Japanese both faulted for collision

18 November 2010 04:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Anti-whaling activists and the crew of a Japanese vessel were both to blame for a collision that caused the sinking of a futuristic boat in the Southern Ocean in January, New Zealand officials said on Thursday, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s $1.5 million trimaran Ady Gil sank after having its bow sheared off in a collision with the Japanese ship Shonan Maru No. 2.
"There is no evidence to suggest that the actions and omissions were the result of an intention on the part of either vessel to collide with the other," New Zealand’s Maritime Safety Authority (MSA) said in a report on the incident.
The Authority investigated the collision because the Ady Gil was a New Zealand registered vessel and skippered. No further action would be taken, it said.
It said the Japanese ship failed to take early action to keep clear of the protest vessel. It also said the Ady Gil’s crew did not keep an adequate look out and did not act quickly enough to avoid the collision.
Each side blamed the other for the incident in which one crewman aboard the protest vessel was injured, and Japanese diplomats lodged a protest with the New Zealand government.
Clashes between Japanese whalers and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have become an annual feature of the hunt for whales in Antarctic waters.
Commercial whaling is banned under a 1986 moratorium, but the Japanese have continued to take whales for what they say is scientific research to monitor their impact on fish stocks, ignoring criticism from anti-whaling nations.