That may well be so, but international protocol limits the number of passes to 3, not 12
Surely if you are not at the minimum distances, then its not a pass? ISTR it was only 3 passes
at the minimum separation distance. Outside those distances you weren't doing a 'pass'. Must admit 500 feet and half a mile doesn't seem like a problem to me; not very threatening and very close. The sailors on board would need a pretty long lens to get their own happy snaps of the "bad guys"!!