Japanese whalers ram the Ady Gil (with video footage)
mnn.com
mnn.com
Both captains still had a duty to avoid the collision overall.
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Hard to tell from the videos, but it looks like at first the Ady Gil was stopped, but then appears to motor forward as the Japanese ship gets closer.
Without the precursor video, it's a tough call. According to maritime navigation rules, the Ady Gil would have been the "give way" vessel in this situation, meaning the large ship had the right of way. Unless the Ady Gil as disabled and/or had lost significant maneuverability.
I don't support the whaling "study", based on what I've read, however from an analytical standpoint the blame for this would seem to lie with the captain of the Gil. He/She either failed to give way and/or put the passengers and the ship in an unneccessarily dangerous position, especially when you consider how much other open water was available in the area for navigation.
They seemed to me to make a deliberate right turn. Regardless of who had the right of way, is that legal? Maybe the ocean made them do it, but I don't think so.
One hostile action (hosing) lends credence to another hostile action (deliberate collision).
I hope both parties turn to whatever governing body is appropriate to assign fault and penalty.
The reason why I'm sympathetic to this is because I remember this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Pereira
Even if I don't always agree with Greenpeace as an organization their struggle to literally save the wales is a noble cause. The rest of it I'm not so sure about, they are much more of a political and marketing organization now.