The activists were asking for it, Japan's Fisheries Agency says

Feb 27, 2013 12:26 GMT  ·  By

The video above was recently released by green-oriented group Sea Shepherd and shows how Japanese whalers purposely ram one of their ships.

As shocking as this footage might be, Japan's Fisheries Agency maintains that the activists were pretty much asking for it.

More precisely, Sea Shepherd tried to keep the Japanese whalers from refueling, and even slammed their own ships into a research vessel dubbed Nisshin Maru.

In other words, the crew aboard the Japanese whalers were doing no more and no less than acting in self-defense.

Interestingly enough, this footage was posted online shortly after a judge decided that those working with the Sea Shepherd organization were basically pirates and had to be dealt with accordingly.

“WOW! Humans can be so determined in protecting animals,” reads one comment to this video.