Whale Wars camera operator, activists injured by hooks, bamboo poles

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by Andy Dehnart / January 19, 2012, 6:47 AM

The intensity of the confrontation between anti-whaling activists and Japanese whalers continues in the Southern Ocean, where a camera operator for Animal Planet’s documentary reality series Whale Wars was injured. On its web site, Sea Shepherd reports that

“American crewmember Brian Race, (25) from New York, was jabbed twice in the face with a bamboo pole receiving lacerations above his right eye and on his nose. Russell Bergh of South Africa, (35) a cameraman for Animal Planet, was struck in the right arm and shoulder with an iron grappling hook thrown from the harpoon vessel resulting in deep bruising. Photographer Guillaume Collet of France, (27) was also struck in the right arm and shoulder by an iron grappling hook resulting in deep bruising.”

That happened when, Paul Watson said, Sea Shepherd’s “”small boats were attempting to slow down the Japanese harpoon vessel Yushin Maru No. 2, which is aggressively tailing the Steve Irwin.”

Meanwhile, Sea Shepherd’s interceptor vessel, the Brigitte Bardot (previously known as the Gojira), docked in Fremantle, Australia, earlier this month after being damaged by a rogue wave; it’s now out of the campaign one of its pontoons was cracked.

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