"Sea Shepherd" circa 1982

uploaded by farleyj April 12, 2008 at 05:00 pm
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The controversial annual seal hunting season began with a literal bang: the sound of two ships and two very different points of view colliding in the cold waters off Canada's east coast.

A Canadian coast guard icebreaker and a conservation group clashed Sunday at the site of seal hunting off Canada's eastern coast, just three days after the controversial annual hunting season started.

The coast guard icebreaker Des Groseilliers collided with the Farley Mowat, a ship owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canadian Press reported Monday.

The conservation group claimed its ship was rammed twice by the 98-meter icebreaker, but a spokesperson for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) said the Farley Mowat actually "grazed" the icebreaker twice.

"The Farley Mowat approached the Des Groseilliers and brushed up against the side of the vessel, " aid DFO spokesperson Phil Jenkins.

Allegations that the Farley Mowat was rammed are "absolutely false," Jenkins said, "we completely reject these allegations, they are fiction."

But the Los-Angles-based Sea Shepherd Society said their ship was rammed.