Yea, sucks to see something pretty cool like the Ady Gil, get trashed at the hands of morons. (Eddie Griffin crashing an Enzo, for instance).
I blame the politicians. They either need close the "killing for research" loophole, or just allow them to commercially hunt. The SeaShepperds are more or less getting exactly what they want, attention, either good or bad, for their cause. No one is going to do anything till either a ship full Sheppard's or Japanese whalers sinks and they lose everyone aboard.
Personally, I look at it geographically. The Japanese are hunting these whales half a world away, off the Antarctic coast. I fully understand these are "international" waters, but they're no where near Japan. The situation, to me at least, would be completely different if they were just tagging some whales out of Tokyo. But they're no where near Tokyo. I'm trying to think of something that the U.S. does before I make the next comment, but I can't. Could anyone imagine if the U.S. was doing something similar? Say we all developed a taste for Great White sharks, and were hunting them off the coast of South Africa. How long do you think that would last? How long before US flags are burning? Why is the world so irresponsibly reluctant to put pressure on Japan?