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| Down Under |
| Anti-whaling activist says Sea Shepherd sank its own ship |
| 2010-10-08 |
| A former Sea Shepherd activist on Thursday accused the militant conservation group of deliberately sinking one of its own ships as a publicity stunt after a collision with a Japanese whaler. New Zealander Pete Bethune labelled Sea Shepherd's leadership "morally bankrupt" for allegedly ordering the hi-tech trimaran Ady Gil to be scuttled after it collided with a Japanese whaler last January in the Southern Ocean. Bethune, the Ady Gil's captain, said Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson ordered the ship's sinking to "garner sympathy with the public and to create better TV" in the publicity battle against Japan's Antarctic whaling program. "It was definitely salvageable, it was still rock solid from the engine room back," he told Radio New Zealand. Bethune, who spent five months in custody in Japan earlier this year after illegally boarding the same whaler Shonan Maru II a month after the high-seas collision, said he had cut all ties with Sea Shepherd. "I think an organisation that relies on public money and public generosity to survive has an obligation to be honest," he said. Watson denied the allegations, saying Bethune was bitter over his falling out with the organisation. "No one ordered him to scuttle it. Pete Bethune was captain of the Ady Gil, all decisions on the Ady Gil were his," he said. Sea Shepherd distanced itself from Bethune when he as awaiting trial in Japan earlier this year for boarding the Shonan Maru II but later said it was a ploy to try to ensure the activist received a light sentence. Bethune was given a two-year suspended sentence in the Tokyo District Court last July after pleading guilty to obstructing commercial activities, trespass, vandalism and carrying a knife, with which he cut the ship's security netting. Japan hunts whales in Antarctic waters using a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium which allows "lethal research". The hunt has resulted in a spate of high-seas confrontations in recent years as conservation groups such as Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace seek to disrupt the Japanese fleet's activities. |
| Posted by:746 |
| #13 there are too many humans on this earth and we are obliterating all the other creatures. I like to see the other species given a chance. Fine with me, anon1. Feel free to man up and move to the head of the Soylent Green production line for the benefit of the ducks and fluffy bunnies. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-10-08 19:38 |
| #12 Noofeees everywhere hate Sea Sphepherd stealing they're names. :( |
| Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where 2010-10-08 19:15 |
| #11 Anon1 - Extinction is a perfectly natural process which has been going on for millions of years. By preventing a species from going extinct you are actually interfering with the natural process. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2010-10-08 18:44 |
| #10 There is a show supporting the Japanese; its called Whale Wars. They are a menace on the sea, to themselves and to others, and are lucky the Japanese do not man their ships with Maltese Sea Tunafishers. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2010-10-08 17:46 |
| #9 If there was a show supporting the Japanese point of view I'd support it. I despise those tree-hugging, enviro-terrorists. If they want to save the whales, they need to buy bigger bathtubs. |
| Posted by: Pancho Angise6853 2010-10-08 15:54 |
| #8 "BTW, who do you think should enforce your edict?" I understand the 10:10 organization is available. And experienced. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2010-10-08 15:01 |
#7
Enforcing the law of the sea would mean pirates like "Sea Shepherd" swinging from the yardarms. Personally, I got no problem with that. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2010-10-08 12:28 |
| #6 ..at the same time they're messing around with recovered Siberian mammoth DNA to revive a dead species. Then watch the entertainment as the goal lines are moved when species can be successfully resurrected and sustained through DNA. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-10-08 11:59 |
| #5 everyone on the planet from now on should have no more than 2 children each. So that's 4 per couple, right? BTW, who do you think should enforce your edict? I'm curious. |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2010-10-08 11:07 |
| #4 anon1: There is a lot of deception out there, so it would be wise to question your assumptions. 1) Hong Kong is a livable city, and doesn't feel particularly crowded, but if every single person in the world lived in a city of that density, it would be about the size of the State of Maine, and the rest of the Earth would be empty. If done at the same density as a typical US suburban area, all humans would fit into the State of Texas. 70% of people in the US now living in metro areas of big cities. All the rest of the US is divided by the remaining 100m people in low density. Poverty stricken Bangladesh has both a high literacy rate, and the people live on some of the richest farmland in the world. They are poor solely because of the effects of Islam and socialism. They have more government employees per capita than the US, and their largest government agency is in charge of management of their primary national crop: the near worthless fiber called jute. They grow this as a condition to get international aid, otherwise they would be too competitive with agricultural crops, and a hundred times wealthier. 2) As many as a third of animals recently declared extinct have be discovered later to still be alive. Often times, extinction is confused because the same species has different breeds, and just a breed has died out. Perhaps the biggest cause of extinction is the man-made or natural introduction of a foreign species that overwhelms a local species by natural selection. But this usually only happens on islands, or where that other species is over adapted to just one place. 3) Overfishing could be solved in short order with mid latitude fish farms. Fish raised at sea, but inside nets descending from pontoons. Done away from the coasts, the ocean cleans and aerates their habitat, and they gain as much weight as the fish food they are fed. A few square miles of such a farm could handle most of the food fish needs for Japan. Conversely, a farm could be used for breed and release of endangered fish. This leads to the next solution: intentional overbreeding of endangered species and desirable animals works. Be it dragonflies, bats, frogs, bees, plants, whatever. If you want more, breed and release, and you'll have more. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-10-08 10:34 |
| #3 1/ the "research" is legal. 2/ Whether you lie or dislkie something doesn't change it's legality. 3/ There are not too many humans on the planet. If you really beleive that you'd not be posting as you'd be dead. 4/ just end subsidies for sex. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-10-08 10:29 |
| #2 While I suspected nothing less, this is a very serious accusation in maritime law. It admits conducting an act of piracy (ramming), and criminal fraud if insurance was on that ship. The insurance company will *have* to order an inquest, both forced to by their underwriters, and by the rest of the industry. There is no sense of humor about these things. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-10-08 10:07 |
| #1 nothing so damaging as an internal spat. i tend to like sea shepherd. nobody else is enforcing the law of the sea to protect the creatures that live there. i like them. i don't like japanese whaling. there are too many humans on this earth and we are obliterating all the other creatures. I like to see the other species given a chance. everyone on the planet from now on should have no more than 2 children each. |
| Posted by: anon1 2010-10-08 10:05 |