WELLINGTON (AFP) – 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.
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