Whaling Ship Rammed Us 

THE anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd says it will continue to monitor a Japanese whaling ship even though whalers allegedly rammed one of its vessels at the weekend off Antarctica.

Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said the Japanese ship rammed the Bob Barker and tore a gash in the hull above the water line.

No one was injured in the incident about 300km off Cape Darnley, in the Australian Antarctic Territory, at 3.09pm on Saturday.

The organisation claimed the harpoon ship Yushin Maru 3 "intentionally" rammed the Bob Barker. The anti-whaling craft had been actively blocking the slipway of the Nisshin Maru, the Japanese whaling fleet's factory ship, when the collision occurred.

The whaler tore a 1m long gash above the waterline in the Bob Barker's hull, but the vessel, named after a US game show host who donated millions to buy it, was not in danger of sinking.

It was the second major clash between the conservationists and whalers this year, after the Ady Gil sank following a collision with a Japanese whaling ship in the Southern Ocean on January 6.

All rights: The Herald Sun