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Sea Shepherd, whaling protester in NZ public spat
 
 
  
 
 By RAY LILLEY,Associated Press Writer -
 Thursday, October  7
 
 
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand – The skipper of a Sea Shepherd protest boat damaged in a collision with a Japanese whaling ship said Thursday that the head of the conservation group ordered him to let the vessel sink because it would help win public support.
 
Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson denied the claim, saying the decision to scuttle the futuristic, high-tech protest boat Ady Gil early this year was made by the skipper, New Zealander Peter Bethune.
 
The exchange exposes a bitter falling out between Bethune, who shot to international prominence because of the high-seas drama, and Watson, the figurehead of Sea Shepherd's campaign against Japan's Antarctic whaling program.
 
The campaign has drawn high-profile donor support in the United States and elsewhere and spawned the popular Animal Planet series "Whale Wars."
 
Bethune was at the helm of the Sea Shepherd boat Ady Gil when its bow was shorn off by Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru 2 in waters off the frozen continent in January. Bethune later boarded the whaler to confront the ship's captain over the collision, and was detained by the crew.
 
Bethune was arrested and spent five months in a Japanese jail while being tried on trespassing, assault and other charges. He was convicted and received a suspended prison sentence in July, then deported.
 
He says the Ady Gil was salvageable after the collision but that Watson ordered it to be sunk. Bethune said he believed Watson wanted the boat to sink to "garner sympathy with the public and to create better TV."
 
"Paul Watson was my admiral. He gave me an order and I carried it out," Bethune told New Zealand's National Radio. "I was ashamed of it at the time and I'm ashamed of it now."
 
"It was all done in secret. I was ordered not to tell any of the crew, not my family and especially not Ady Gil, the owner of the boat," Bethune said, referring to the U.S. businessman who funded the vessel.
 
Watson, a Canadian, said the scuttling of the Ady Gil was Bethune's decision.
 
"Pete is on camera saying 'yes, I guess we're going to have to let it go,' so it was his decision and actually wasn't mine," Watson told National Radio.
 
The Ady Gil sank two days after the collision with the Japanese ship. At the time, Sea Shepherd said the Ady Gil was being towed by another of its vessels, the Bob Barker _ funded by the former U.S. talk show host _ when the line snapped and the Ady Gil began taking on water. Fuel and other potential environmental pollutants had been removed from the boat.
 
The Ady Gil _ a sleek, wave-piercing trimaran that resembled a spider-like stealth bomber _ set the speed record for a power boat circumnavigating the globe in 2009, when it was called Earthrace. It took 60 days, 23 hours, 49 minutes and ran on biofuel.
 
The vessel then joined Sea Shepherd, which used its speed to chase down elusive Japanese whaling ships in Antarctic waters.
 
Sea Shepherd announced during Bethune's trial it would not let him participate in further protests, but after his release said the ban was a tactic to help him avoid prison and that he was free to rejoin.
 
Watson said Thursday that Bethune was expelled from the group in October after it discovered the New Zealander had given false information to Japanese authorities about Watson in exchange for leniency.
 
Bethune said he was speaking out now in an attempt to convince Sea Shepherd's top leaders to show more honesty and integrity.
 
Glenn Inwood, a New Zealand-based spokesman for Japan's Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research, said both Watson and Bethune had "told so many lies over the last few months it's hard to believe either of them" on the issue of the sinking of the Ady Gil.
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
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