Whaling clash on high seas
On July 6 the whale protection ship Whales Forever was rammed by the Norwegian Coastguard vessel Andenes, ripping open a section of the hull and damaging a fuel storage compartment according to reports from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS).
Whales Forever was attempting to interfere with Norway's illegal whaling activities. By hunting minke whales, Norway is violating the International Whaling Commission's ban on commercial whaling.
Whales Forever, the SSCS flagship, was approaching the Lofoten Islands off the northern coast of Norway, with Andenes following, when the captain of Whales Forever, Paul Watson, received a radio message claiming that he had violated Norwegian territorial waters. Watson replied that he was 17 miles from the nearest point of land. Nonetheless he hoisted the yellow Q flag to request official clearance.
The Norwegians responded by attacking Whales Forever and ordered Watson to submit to arrest. When Watson refused the Andenes crossed the bow of the whale protection ship and attempted to foul the propellers with a long trailing rope and chain. On a fourth pass, the Norwegian ship turned hard to port and rammed Whales Forever across the bow causing extensive damage.
During an 18 hour pursuit, the Andenes fired both bullet and cannon shots, dropped four depth charges directly beneath Whales Forever and threatened to fire shells directly into the ship.
The Norwegian commander ordered the crew to go to stern to allow him to fire on the bow. But the crew of Whales Forever gathered on the bow and covered the length of the ship forcing the commander to decide if he was willing to commit murder.
Whales Forever continued on to the Shetland Islands after the Andenes abandoned pursuit, arriving there on July 8. The vessel had engine, shaft and underwater hull damage from the depth charge attacks. This damage might well have been fatal but for the fact that the ship is a double-hulled former seismic research vessel.
The next task for Whales Forever is to frustrate the slaughter of pilot whales in the Danish Faeroe Islands, 170 miles north west of the Shetlands.
There have been conflicting media reports about these events. Information distributed by the Norwegian government states that Whales Forever rammed Andenes, that the vessels were only four miles off shore (in Norwegian waters at the time of the conflict), that warning shots only were fired and that no other weapons were used by the Norwegians.
Sea Shepherd, however, has film footage, tapes of all radio communications and satellite reports that will confirm the location of the two vessels throughout the conflict.