Whale Warrior

Environmentalist and anti-whaling campaigner Pete Bethune is now the world's most recognised eco-warrior. His boarding of the Shonan Maru #2 Japanese whaling vessel in the Southern Ocean to perform a citizen's arrest on the captain, drew worldwide attention. For his 'crime', Bethune - one of the stars of Animal Planet's 'Whale Wars' - was imprisoned in Japan for four months before finally receiving a two-year, suspended sentence. Controversial, attention-seeking, forthright and driven...all these words have been used to describe Bethune. What can't be denied, though, is that he is a man who is prepared to fight - quite literally - for his principles; principles which relate not just to the saving of the great whales of the Southern Ocean, but to the planet as a whole. Bethune has received much criticism for lashing his own government for their lack of action over Japan's annual whale hunt. But this, he believes is a small price to pay for spotlighting the plight of the whales...