Another Sea Shepherd ship has clashed with Japanese whaling ships.

The ‘Bob Barker’ collided with ‘Yushin Maru 3’ on the weekend, 180 miles off Cape Darnley in the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Four harpoon ships, the ‘Yushin Maru 1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’ and ‘Shonan Maru 2’, were circling and making near passes to the stern and bow of the Sea Shepherd vessel. The 'Bob Barker' did not move from its position.

It was then that Sea Shepherd claims the ‘Yushin Maru 3’, “intentionally rammed” the ‘Bob Barker’, creating a one-metre deep gash in the mid starboard side of the vessel.

“Because the whalers got away basically scot-free with the outrageous sinking of the ‘Ady Gil’, they now apparently think they can do whatever they want and they appear to have no qualms about endangering Sea Shepherd crew,” said Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd organisation.

The ‘Ady Gil’ sank on January 7 this year after colliding with the ‘Shonan Maru’. Both sides blamed the other in the incident and government investigations are on-going.