Meet the ‘Extreme Conservationists’ Fighting to Stop Namibia’s Seal
Slaughter In the new Pivot series ‘The Operatives,’ Pete Bethune and his
commando team pursue environmental criminals around the world.
 
August 15, 2014 By Todd Woody
 
When veteran conservationist Pete Bethune steps off the elevator at
TakePart’s Los Angeles headquarters dressed in camouflage, a military-style
rucksack slung across his back, he looks likes he’s ready to parachute into
some remote locale to do battle with poachers and other environmental
evildoers.
 
Which he is.
 
The 49-year-old tattooed New Zealander leads a team of conservationist
commandos in The Operatives, a new television series that premieres Sunday
on Pivot, the television network owned by Participant Media, TakePart’s
parent company.
 
Bethune gained fame in 2010 when he commanded the Ady Gill, a high-tech
trimaran that was part of a Sea Shepherd fleet trying to stop Japanese
whaling ships in the Southern Ocean. A Japanese boat rammed the Ady Gill,
and when Bethune boarded the whaler he was arrested. Taken to Japan, Bethune
was jailed for five months before being released and deported.
 
Now he’s back with a team that travels the world to confront eco-villains
poaching protected wildlife, fishing in marine sanctuaries, and illegally
mining for gold in rainforests home to endangered animals such as the
jaguar.
 
“We got environmental criminals pillaging the world as we speak, and we’re
going to take them on,” says Bethune.
 
He calls it “extreme conservation.”
 
The first episode of The Operatives takes the team to the West African
country of Namibia, where local men club to death more than 80,000 baby Cape
fur seals each year.
 
The Namibian government claims the seal cull is needed to protect fish
stocks. But environmentalists argue there’s another motive: The pelts of the
dead seal pups are exported to make clothing.
 
In 2006, for instance, Namibia set the cull quota at 85,000 seals, according
to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
 
“This high harvest level has been retained despite several years with very
high mortality levels for pups along with many thousands of adult deaths in
Namibia,” the IUCN states in a report.
 
Namibia and Canada are the only countries that permit the clubbing to death
of baby seals.
 
Environmentalists estimate that the fur trade brings at most $500,000 to
Namibia. Tourism, on the other hand, is worth $681 million annually,
according to the government. Among the attractions that lure tourists:
the country’s wildlife, including fur seals.
To Kill or Not to Kill? New Hope in the Fight to Save Baby Seals
 
While the IUCN says that there have been reports that fur seals have had
some impact on fishing, it noted that many seals also die after being
entangled in fishing lines or are illegally shot by fishermen.
 
In the first The Operatives episode, Bethune and his team travel overland
from South Africa to Namibia. They take an inflatable boat down the coast
under cover of darkness and then swim to shore through shark-infested
waters. Why the subterfuge? The cull they want to document is taking place
on the site of a diamond mine, and the operatives must sneak onto the beach
and avoid capture to film the carnage.
 
We won’t reveal any spoilers, but it’s extreme viewing. Check out the
preview below
 
Video at link:
 
http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/08/15/extreme-conservationists-fight-st
op-seal-slaughter-namibia