War on whales, turns to war of words

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War on whales, turns to war of words

3News NZ

Pete Bethune (NZPA file)

Pete Bethune (NZPA file)

By Brook Sabin

The war of words between anti-whaling activist Pete Bethune and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has intensified with Mr Bethune being labelled a liar.

Mr Bethune has quit the organisation, accusing its leader Paul Watson of ordering him to sink his damaged protest vessel to gain media attention - a claim that is flatly denied.

It was a collision in the sea, thousands of kilometres from land, which sparked worldwide attention.

But 10 months later, it is causing fresh friction.

At the time, it was reported the Ady Gill sank while being towed back to Australia.

“I had my suspicions and I said to the guys when I went to bed last night ‘if the boat goes down don't wake me’,” Mr Bethune said at the time.

But now he says the boat "could" have been towed back to port, but he was instructed to go below deck - and sink it.

“It was done for PR purposes and after the sinking I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone about it and I wasn't even allowed to visit Ady Gil,” says Mr Bethune.

“This is Ady Gil's boat and I’ve got to keep it a secret from him.”

But speaking from the United States, the head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Paul Watson, says that's a lie.

“It was like towing an open bucket, essentially it was 2000 miles through very stormy seas, everybody including Pete agreed it was unsalvageable,” says Mr Watson.

Mr Bethune yesterday resigned from Sea Shepherd in an open letter on his Facebook page.

He says he can no longer represent a group that deliberately misleads and lies.

“There's some serious moral errors going on in the management of Sea Shepherd, but it breaks my heart to leave the organisation - but I’m just left with no choice.”

In the past hour, the dispute has intensified. Sea Shepherd released footage, which claims to show Mr Bethune making the call about the ship's future.

This war on whales has now truly turned into a war of words.

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Comments

6/08/2011 6:31:23 p.m.

Randy wrote:

RedTussock says "Paul Watson is a Bogus American Blow Hard ... stay out of the Southern Ocean Paul" Really you IDIOT! Paul Watson is a Canadian not American you tool. That's like calling someone from New Zealand an Aussie. I can't believe how many jerk offs there are on this comment page. Paul Watson devotes his entire life to whales and stands up for them so our children might see a live whale one day. What do you stand for loser? constant criticism? Get the shit out of your head.

6/11/2010 11:25:32 a.m.

Whale wrote:

The Ady was BREAKING tow lines in completely flat water. If any of you think the Bob Barker was capable of towing the Ady at 3kts through some of the most dangerous ocean on the planet then your completely mad. And as for the French base, The french hadnt agreed to allow the Ady to be left there and for Pete to say she should have been towed to Australia, hes an idiot. The Ady had only been harassing the Factory ship that day and wasnt expecting the Shonan to turn almost 90degrees and tbone them. And what would you all do if you suddenly realized you were going to get run down??. Id try and get out of the way. Alittle too late in this instant. Pete new the Ady couldnt be saved and towed back. Petes just bitter that hes been kicked out. If Pete was SO disgusted in the so called "dishonesty" of Sea Shepherd then why days later send Paul Watson an email demanding Paul takes him back or..he will go to the media and try and bring Sea Shepherd down. Petes the dishonest one. He shouldnt be pointing fingers at people. Come clean Pete and tell how you tried to hide things from Sea Shepherd before last years trip. Tell how you were there to trophy hunt and were hoping to kill a harpooned whale and cut its jaw out and put it up on your wall and sell the harpoon on Ebay. This can be viewed on Whale Wars. Pete your a lier.

9/10/2010 5:49:02 p.m.

RedTussock wrote:

Nice phone being used in the Sea Shepherd video ... is that this years model or last years. Paul Watson is a Bogus American Blow Hard ... stay out of the Southern Ocean Paul, it has a way of finding Dishonest people out. Most all Paul Watson stop bringing discredit to the Anti Whaling effort.

8/10/2010 7:59:27 a.m.

atrout wrote:

Let's get one thing very straight. The Ady Gil was VERY salvagable. No significant amount of water on board. Electronics intact and could have been towed to safety with a bit of care. There were two reasons to scuttle the Ady, one- Paul wanted to stay on the chase after the whalers and second but more importantly, this was a way to get rid of his mate Pete Bethune. Paul has huge difficulty sharing his ego space and Pete was getting too much publicity and had to go. The fact that the fault in the collision between the Shonan Maru and the Ady Gil was solely that of Pete's made it that much easier to get rid of the wounded boat. Pete was in command of the Gil and must have given the fateful order to run across the bow of the Japanese boat. Sadly and stupidly rather too late to avoid having her bow cut off. The long and the short of it all is the simple, unavoidable fact that Pete sunk the Gil, was responsibile for the collision and Paul sunk Pete. Nothing is going to change that desipite Paul's media damage control. Accept the facts!

8/10/2010 3:11:11 a.m.

HellfireJack wrote:

Bit of a disconnect in Watson's facts. he French base the Ady Gil was being towed to was only 300 miles away not 2000. The weather wasn't choppy or stormy at all at the time. There is video of the Ady Gil floating abandoned taken by the Japanese and available for viewing on the ICR website. Seems Watson still can't get his facts straight.

8/10/2010 2:50:16 a.m.

Pete Wilson wrote:

Paul Watson says in part, "...essentially it was 2000 miles through very stormy seas,..." Rubbish! They were attempting to tow to the French research base on Antarctica, a distance of about 300 miles. Footage from the AP show, video form the Japanese ICR, as well as ICR photos of the abandoned Ady Gil, all show calm seas. Mr Watson attempts to spin another yarn despite much evidence to the contrary, some from his own website. Wake up people!
http://www.icrwhale.org/gpandsea-img204.htm
http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-101006-2.html
http://www.icrwhale.org/eng/100108SS.wmv

8/10/2010 2:19:14 a.m.

Did Ady Gil really sink? wrote:

Anyone who thinks that Ady Gil was unsalvageable and it sank as reported should think twice. It is true that SS told media that Ady Gil was unsalvageable. In fact, when Bob Barker, the ship that accompanied Ady Gil, left the scene, Ady Gil was floating. Even when the Japanese ship SHonan Maru conducted examination of the scene after Bob Barker left Ady Gil was floating and showed no signs of sinking. It's very light-weight and made to float on water. The Japanese whalers didn't consider it sinking, nor sunk. Ady Gil was floating when Shonan Maru left the day after. Don't you think Ady Gil could be still floating?

7/10/2010 6:45:21 p.m.

rjdstw wrote:

Bethune is a liar, he was expelled from Sea Shepherd, he knew The Ady Gil was unsalvageable hes just a very bitter person who lied as well in his court case in Japan.

7/10/2010 5:53:45 p.m.

mcc wrote:

" Wonder how long before they admit they caused the accident for the tv cameras they had onboard" Watson's email to Bethune, which sparked all this, already laid the blame at his feet. Watson said told Pete his negligence was the reason the ship got hit in the first place. Of course, anyone who paid close attention at the time it happened -- and saw the admission from several crew members including Pete that the most inexperienced crew member was piloting it at the time and hit the throttle at the worst moment (these news reports were all mysteriously deleted within hours of course) -- or can see with their own eyes that the wake behind the vessel suddenly increases in the final seconds as it kamikazes into the Japanese vessel -- will already know this. But it's still nice to see it from Watson himself. It's just a pity Australian media is shamelessly in bed with SS and reprints their propaganda word for word with no journalistic integrity whatsoever. They're just as bad as Fox News in America.

7/10/2010 4:19:23 p.m.

vivi wrote:

I am a Japanese girl living in NZ.I was told by my friend that I was brainwashed by Japanese TV over the whaling issue.Now it is obvious that anti-whalers was cheated by those people.Shame...