Stuff: Activist lashes out at Sea Shepherd
Anti-whaling activist Pete Bethune has resigned from the Sea Shepherd Society calling the conservation group "morally bankrupt" and "dishonest". In a heated online feud, the New Zealand skipper said on his Facebook page that he deliberately sunk his ship the Ady Gil in Antarctic waters during whaling protests on the orders of leader society leader Paul Watson. After his ship was rammed by Japanese whaling ship the Shonan Maru II earlier this year, Mr Bethune said it was salvageable and could be towed. "Paul Watson was my admiral. I did it out of loyalty to him. He gave me an order and I carried it out. I was ashamed of it at the time and I'm ashamed of it now. "It was all done in secret. We were ordered not to tell any crew about it, not to tell our families and to especially not tell Ady Gil [the American businessman who funded the boat]." Mr Bethune said the sinking was ordered to "garner sympathy with the public and to create better TV". He said he was "tired of all the lies, deception and dishonesty"...
... Mr Watson said Pete Bethune did not leave to the group, he was expelled. Mr Bethune cooperated with the Japanese police and gave them false information against him, Mr Watson said. "We discovered that you gave testimony to the Japanese police that accused me of ordering you onto the Shonan Maru II. They told you they wanted me, not you, and you swore a statement against me in return for leniency." "You're not the victim here Pete. You agreed to cooperate with the Japanese," Mr Watson said. "That is the reason you cannot return to the Southern Ocean with us"...more...
More detailed account of the dispute here.