Pete Bethune talks to 3 News following the release of Maritime New Zealand’s report into the Ady Gil collision with Japanese whaler Shonan Maru 2.
What are your feelings now, having read the report?
I’m pretty happy with it, it acknowledges the Shonan Maru was the give way vessel…
[The report] takes away the Japanese argument that we deliberately put ourselves in their way.
How do you respond to the report’s findings that the Ady Gil should have made more of an effort to move?
The way I looked at it is, leading up to the collision, we were basically a stationary vessel or moving at 3 knots. You don’t expect someone to come and run you over and in hindsight, looking at it, sure we could have just gone somewhere else - that was possible, but we just didn’t expect someone to come and run us over. That’s my mistake.
But, it’s clear in the report, we had the right of way, they were the overtaking vessel, they have an absolute obligation to keep clear of us and they failed to do so.
Keep in mind, a collision at sea, it is never 100 percent and zero percent, there is always culpability on both sides – and I’m quite accepting of that.
And I do accept that we could have done things a little bit differently but, from a legal perspective, they are the major cause of this collision by deliberately steering into us and then deliberately turning to starboard in the last 10 seconds and the report says that. Sure, I could have done things a little bit differently, in hindsight, but I just never expected they would try and run me over.
What would you like to see happen from here?
There’s nothing that can happen.
One thing the Japanese were very clever on, they waited for six months before submitting the rest of their data, so the Maritime Safety could never produce this report in six months and there’s a six-month time limit on prosecutions.
It’s impossible for the Japanese to be prosecuted by Maritime New Zealand.
For us to take action in Japan, the word we’ve had is that it would cost $2 million to $4 million, and to recover a million or two for a boat is just not worth it.
It’s just time to move on.
I’m happy that the report is out and that it does basically say what we’ve said all along – that they were overtaking us, they turned to starboard in an act that was deliberate.
Whether they deliberately tried to kill us, the report doesn’t say. Certainly they deliberately acted in a way that lead to an extraordinarily dangerous situation.
What happens now with regards to the boat?
Cut our losses. Move on.
The only option open to us now is legal action in Japan and Japan is a tough place to take legal action – it’s just not worth it.
It’s just time to move on.
I’m kind of philosophical about it, the loss of the Ady Gil – while it’s a shame to lose what I believe was an iconic New Zealand boat – it has served a purpose and its been part of an historic campaign for the anti-whaling movement and the spotlight is on whaling like never before and you’re starting to see that now.
The Japanese, they are talking about pulling out of Antarctica, they’ve started talking about the need to replace their fleet.
I think, the loss of the Ady Gil, while it’s a shame to lose it, some good has and will come from this in terms of hopefully finally getting the Japanese out of Antarctica.
Do you still feel you’re fighting a worthy cause? Are you still passionate after all you've been through?
Antarctica is a special place mate, and the Japanese have no right to be down there.
For me it’s a matter of right and wrong – they’ve got not right to be down there.
I don’t regret my actions. I still think it was the right thing to do at the time.
A lot of people in New Zealand have sort of said I’m a cowboy and things like that – but they were calculated risks and pretty much, it panned out as we expected in terms of prison time in Japan.
And I’ve got no problem with what happened to me through this campaign.
It’s a shame to lose the boat, but aside from that, I was lucky to be part of an historic campaign.
Are things starting to change?
I think the Japanese are looking for an out from Antarctica now. I’ve got no problem with the prison time I’ve served, the fact that the boat’s gone Those are the risks you take when you take on a foe like Japan. I don’t regret it and I think it was still the right thing to do and the fact that Japan continue whaling, it’s because they make so much money.
These things are not battles that you win overnight.
Society does gradually change what it finds acceptable and there is a mood swing starting to happen in Japan over this. A lot of Japanese are starting to say, ‘Is it worth all of this hatred from Western countries towards us, over an industry that only makes $50 million?’
Things like, the Ady Gil going down, my time in prison, all the confrontations in Antarctica, they do serve a purpose and it’s part of what will stop whaling but, not an easy battle to win this.