”The nine most terrifying words in the English language…”

“…are ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help’…”

A research vessel for the federal agency charged with protecting the endangered right whale hit one of the animals off the Massachusetts coast this weekend, cutting into the animal's left tail fluke with its propeller.

And before anyone points out that this was a total accident that could happen to anyone, and therefore should not be used to draw any conclusions, you can rest easy – the single-issue fanatics are waaaaayyyy ahead of you.

At least, on the ‘drawing conclusions’ front:

But the accident shows how difficult it is to protect the animal, even with the extraordinary precautions taken by a NOAA boat, said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, a Plymouth-based biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

"To me, if it can happen to NOAA, it can happen to anybody," Ms Asmutis-Silvia said. "Therefore, everybody needs to up the ante and up their vigilance and take the issue much more seriously."

Yup, the fact that a government boat, presumably crewed by ‘professionals’, was unable to avoid this collision just means that all you proles out there need to work so much harder to avoid whales…

Or, we could just conclude that accidents happen, even when you set out with the best of intentions.

But that doesn’t help to push your agenda, does it, Regina…?