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5 injured after high-speed boat apparently collides with whale

12 Comments

The Japan Coast Guard said Sunday that five people were injured after a high-speed boat, on its way from Kagoshima to Yakushima, apparently collided with a whale.

The collision occurred at 9 a.m., disabling the Toppy 1, TBS reported. The boat was carrying 189 passengers and crew. After the collision, the captain radioed for help and the coast guard towed the boat back to Kagoshima on Sunday afternoon.

Blood was spotted in the water around the vessel after the collision, leading authorities to conclude that it hit a whale.

One passenger was quoted by TBS as saying that she immediately thought of the Titanic after the boat came to a halt following the collision.

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12 Comments
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Stupid whales. What business do they have disturbing commercial boat traffic anyway? And what are they doing in the ocean? Shouldn't they be where they belong? In some aquarium in Kanagawa.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

is the wale ok?

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Happened a few times on the Japan-Korea boats a few years ago too.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Those Toppies are hydrofoils lifting the hull up and out of the water. Presumably the underwater wing hit hard. They are lucky it didn't break away and rip a hole in the hull...

Hope the whale is all right.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

A whale followed me for about a half hour last year trying to scratch his back on the keel of my sailboat. We were minding our own business in the open ocean and felt a shudder all through the boat and when a whale surfaced off to the side of the boat, we thought we had hit it accidently. But he turned around and made another pass under the boat scraping his back on the keel. This process continued for about a half hour. Our boat has a full keel, in other words it is one piece from bow to stern, if it had been a fin keel, I would have been worried about stress damage. Never know what you are going to bump into on the ocean.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Probably top heavy.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

this could be invaluable scientific data for J whale research.........how to avoid hitting each other.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Ah karma is it great.....

Its a wonder the JCG hasnt tried to arrest the whale for breaching the Japanese EEZ.

That whale deserves one big thumbs up....

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Ah karma is it great.....

People being hurt, possibly children, is great in your eyes? Why?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The highly intelligent whale should have watched where it was going. Have they not yet learnt that high speed vessels travel in this area a couple of times each day?

In the past, people have been injured on this vessel due to whales. Since then, seat belts are mandatory. I hope it prevented injury this time.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Shouldnt the intrepid Japanese whale researchers come up with a solution to this?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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