But while he was able to board the boat, he was arrested by Japanese officials, held for five months in a Japanese prison, sentenced to two years' imprisonment (a sentence eventually suspended for five years), and immediately deported.Īccording to the SSCS, while in custody Bethune implicated Watson incorrectly in the plot, which the group alleges lead the Japanese to issue an arrest warrant for Watson, put him on the international "blue list," and may have even resulted in a brief arrest while Watson was traveling between the U.S. 2 and place the captain under citizen's arrest. The collision enraged Bethune, and through a serious of conversations with Watson he devised a plan to board the Japanese vessel Shonan Maru No. The controversy started when Bethune's boat, the Batman-style Ady Gil - one in the SSCS's fleet of three - collided with one of the Japanese whaling vessels, eventually leading to the boat's sinking: The story does not need to be manipulated and changed in order to get public support.” Saving whales, dolphins, tuna and sharks are noble causes, and the public will embrace these as worthwhile. “I am asking that from now on, SSCS determine to act in an honest way with its volunteers, supporters and media,” Bethune writes via a Facebook comment. In a lengthy explanation on his Facebook page, and then through a story on the site that he links to, Bethune offers an "online letter of resignation." Paul Watson, accusing the American of hoodwinking the public on multiple occasions. He's especially upset with the group's leader, Capt. But whatever you call the members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) - better known as the crew from Animal Planet's "Whale Wars" - you should know that one of their own is calling them "dishonest" and "morally bankrupt," and alleging conspiracies and cover-ups.įormer Sea Shepherd captain Pete Bethune, from New Zealand, has lashed out at the scrappy, yet highly organized and sometimes dangerous, group of international college activists, weekend warriors, and extended-vacation professionals who pester Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean in an attempt to save the whales.
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