Anti-Whaling Vessel Damaged By Wave As Crew Battles With Japan Fleet

The anti-whaling group aboard the Sea Shepherd Society’s Steve Irwin were dealt a blow on Wednesday when a rogue wave smashed into the groups Brigitte Bardot vessel cracking its hull and severely damaging one of the vessels pontoons.

The Sea Shepherd Society sets out each year in an attempt to disrupt the Japanese fleet and their murdering of more than 1,000 whales for what the fleet calls “research purposes.”

All 10 crew members aboard the vessel are save and the group says the boat is in no danger of sinking.

At the time of the freak accident the Brigitte Bardot was chasing the Japanese ship Nisshin Maru when 20-foot swells smashed a rogue wave into the port side of the vessel.

At the time of the accident the Steve Irwin was approximately 12 hours away from the damaged vessel. Once the Steve Irwin reaches the boat it will be escorted 1,500 miles to Fremantle, Western Australia, for repairs. Once the damaged is fixed the boat will return to the water off Antarctica where crew members will continue to fend off the Japanese fleet.

While the vessel is out of commission the Bob Barker crew continued to hunt for the whaling fleet on Thursday morning.

Under an International Whaling Commission ruling the Japanese fleet is allowed to kill 1,000 whales per year for research purposes, however animal rights activists have long stated that killed whales are ending up in various products around Japan and other regions rather than being used for research purposes.

The hunting season run from December through February.

This isn’t he first time the Sea Shepherd Society has had boat issues, in 2010 a Japanese vessel sheered off the bow of an anti-whaling ship during a collision.

Do you think the International Whaling Commission needs to revise their rules so Japanese “research” vessels can no longer kill ways for less than altruistic purposes?