Bethune hinting at further Sea Shepherd protest

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Mon, 12 Jul 2010 6:10p.m.

Pete Bethune is hinting at a new protest project that will go much further than even he has gone to date

Pete Bethune is hinting at a new protest project that will go much further than even he has gone to date

By Melissa Davies

Pete Bethune is hinting at a new protest project that will go much further than even he has gone to date

He slammed the Government as ‘soft’ on Japan and called foreign minister Murray McCully a “fat little lap dog”.

John Key in turn described Mr Bethune as “ungrateful”.

Pete Bethune wore his Sea Shepherd shirt inside out at the weekend because he wasn't sure if he was still a member but today he was back with his heart on his sleeve.

"New Zealand has become like a fat little lap dog and any country like Japan that wants to walk over us we're too afraid to do anything about it,” he said.

Mr Bethune criticised Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully for not joining Australia in taking Japan to court.

“I remain disgusted at the way Murray McCully has treated us from day one.”

But Mr McCully issued a statement saying he was comfortable the Government approach to the whaling issue is the one that will lead to a resolution fastest.

“The Japanese are wrong about whaling and Murray McCully seemed to be supporting the Japanese Government instead of the New Zealander who was a protestor,” he said.

But the Prime Minister has defended the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said staff in Japan did all they possibly could to support Mr Bethune; he called Mr Bethune “ungrateful”.

Mr Bethune is grateful to be back with Sea Shepherd; the worst moment in his Japanese jail was when 3 News passed on the message he had been expelled.

“I had a journalist from New Zealand came in and saw me and said I'd been booted out of Sea Shepherd and I felt very betrayed,” he said.

The next Sea Shepherd mission is already in the planning.

“If there's a decision made that we needed to board another ship then we probably will,” said Laurens de Groot of Sea Shepherd.

Ominously for Japan, Mr Bethune describes his experience so far as just an apprenticeship and now it's time for the real job.

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Comments

16 Aug 2010 11:42a.m.

atrout wrote:

Poor Pete hasn't learned a thing from his previous misadventures. An ego greater than his intellect obviously. When Sea Shepherd announce that Pete was a bad boy for taking his bow and arrows to the Antarctic it should have been obvious that they were distancing themselves from Pete in order to assure the Japanese that he was no longer a threat to them. Now that he has been released, SS can take him back in and the supporters will not question the obvious strategy to use Pete's publicity value again. Paul Watson knows the value of the TV program Whale Wars for drawing in huge donations from a naive public. Stick with the tuna issues and leave the glory issues to international diplomacy.

22 Jul 2010 10:10a.m.

Scott wrote:

I can't believe how many negative comments are on here? Let's beat up on the man that is trying to make a change in a brutal and violent trade and market...and you people think that it is about his ego? Idiots. What this world needs is more Sea Shepard's and a whole lot less talk. If you disagree with saving the planet, do not be surprised when your own habitat is gone. When you realize that humans are the next endangered species, it will be too late.

18 Jul 2010 01:18a.m.

Leonard Green wrote:

It is a fact that people who post comments under the name Mr Philips are cross-dressing bed wetters. See I can state my opinions and say they are facts also. It doesn't make them facts, but I know that. I suspect that you don't know that and you actually believe your "facts" are true.

Laws are made to keep all people in check. Although again I suspect that you feel you and people you agree with should be exempt from laws because you just 'know' what is best for the rest of us.

Yes, Peter Bethune set a record for round the world with a power boat. Did you know that the record for round the world with a sailboat is 10 days FASTER than Peter's record? If someone wasted 4 years of their life and seriously damaged their family financially and emotionally to build a power boat that is SLOWER than a sailboat, I would think they would try and hide that fact rather than tell everybody how much of a wanker they are.

16 Jul 2010 09:56p.m.

Mr Philips wrote:

It's a fact that people who are against the conservation of endangered mammals, are people of low moral integrity and would be the same people against the abolition of slavery 150 years ago. Laws are made to keep these people in check. Pete Bethune is a world record holder. Those against him are nobodys who will never achieve anything in life.

15 Jul 2010 10:10p.m.

Leonard Green wrote:

It is interesting to see that 100% of Chris' comments show he is a bigot. Because that is all there are Chris, English and Japanese right. If someone isn't a native English speaker they must be Japanese. It is not like other countries with other languages aren't inrerested in the whaling issue.

Why don't you go crawl back under the rock you came from and let the civilized adults have a conversation?

15 Jul 2010 04:52p.m.

Chris wrote:

Its interesting to see that 90% of the anti Peter Bethune comments appear to be from poor-english speaking persons, obviously Japanese whale meat eaters, in Japan.

14 Jul 2010 09:55p.m.

ednakano wrote:

He got suspend sentence by acting no to return SSCS. As sonn as he released, The change his mind. This is typical person in cult. Paul Eatson welcome Pete Bethune just for audience ratio of "Whale war season III". Paul Watson do not care really he rejoin SSCS or not. he just keep Bethune as SSCS member as long as "Whale war III" on TV. Therefore Pete Bethune is Puppet of Paul Watson.

14 Jul 2010 10:46a.m.

Cathy wrote:

Bethune the Buffoon is nothing more than a high seas pirate set on vandalising and destroying things in a negative and destructive way to achieve something he could achieve more wisely. As a previous writer said in an associated article, this convicted criminal deserves to be back in a Japanese Jail to serve his time on a diet of whale meat where hopefully that would give him something real to blubber about.

14 Jul 2010 07:12a.m.

Jan.. wrote:

Pete Bethune should think himself lucky to return home to his wife and children and not in the Japanese prison serving times for the damages to the Japan's vessel..
We do have a major problem out there with the oil spills killing the world enviroment need to be cleanned-up fast and soon..

14 Jul 2010 04:36a.m.

Leonard Green wrote:

@Pamela Campbell

"Our country was born of direct activism at great cost-as many critics now choose to forget."

America was born from Save the Whales campaigns? Oh no wait it must have been Save the Spotted Owl? Or maybe it was something to do with protecting HUMANS and their rights. Oh except for the slaves, the founders had to make sure and keep them in slavery and only count them as 3/5 of a person. And can't let the women vote no telling what might happen if they could actually voice their opinions.

"...highly evolved beings."

You do realize that every species on the planet has been evolving for the exact same amount of time? Species don't evolve to some 'ideal' and stop. Even simple single cell creatures are still undergoing evolution to this day and will continue evolving into the future.