Earthrace was renamed the Ady Gil in 2009 and Bethune sailed it in Antarctica for Sea Shepherd Conservation Society[1] to disrupt Japanese whaling activities.

More recently Bethune's work has involved training government teams on coastal and offshore surveillance, fisheries enforcement, and maritime security.

[7] In January 2021, while on patrol in Piedras Blancas National Park in Costa Rica, Bethune was bitten by a deadly Fer-de-lance snake.

[9] In March 2022 while at anchor in the port town of Buenaventura in Colombia, his team was attacked by an estimated 15 pirates that attempted to board their ship.

"[11] Based on his research at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Bethune set out to prove that hydrocarbon fuels could be replaced by sustainable bio-fuels.

Once they rounded Aceh in Indonesia and started crossing the Indian Ocean the vessel encountered significant bad weather in the first monsoon of the season.

[11] After touring ports around the globe, the Earthrace was put on sale for $3 million and Bethune considered using it to interfere with Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean if a buyer could not be found.

AMSA was unable to verify claims made by Sea Shepherd, while the Japanese government declined to participate with the investigation saying any information it had might be needed for an inquiry by its own authorities.

The report did conclude however that the captains of both the Ady Gil and the whaler, the Shonan Maru No 2, "were partly responsible for either contributing to, or failing to respond to the 'close quarters' situation that led to the collision".

The purpose of the boarding was to conduct a citizen's arrest on her captain, Hiroyuki Komiya, alleging attempted murder, and to present a claim for $3 million for the ramming of his vessel.

[36][37][38][39] On 2 April 2010, Bethune was indicted in Japan on five charges: boarding a vessel without due cause, illegal possession of a knife, destruction of property, assault and obstruction of business.

[40] The assault charge was based on the allegation that he threw a bottle of butyric acid onto the Shōnan Maru 2 days before the boarding, causing chemical burns to a whaler's face.

[45] Bethune was charged with intruding on the ship, forcibly obstructing business, violating the Firearms and Swords Control Law and damaging property.

[50] Though he admitted to launching a projectile of butyric acid,[51][52] he contested the assault charge against him on the grounds that the Japanese crew injured themselves in firing of their own pepper spray guns into the wind.

Bethune disassociated himself from Sea Shepherd by posting an open letter on his Facebook page on 4 October 2010, condemning the organisation and its leader Paul Watson as "dishonest" and "morally bankrupt".

According to his letter, he was directed by Paul Watson to sink the Ady Gil deliberately for PR purposes after the collision with the Japanese whaling ship.

In characterising testimony for the suit, the arbitrator was particularly harsh on Paul Watson; finding the Sea Shepherd founder in some instances to "be highly evasive, internally contradictory, or at odds with his own prior written statements, and in certain areas simply lacking the basic indicia of genuineness that instinctively inspires confidence and trust.

"[67] As for Gil, the arbitrator stated his "testimony appeared genuine in intent if somewhat fuzzy in detail, and perhaps colored in hindsight by strong emotions of betrayal on the part of those in whom he had placed a perhaps naïve degree of trust.

His team had been flying a Skylark military drone at night over the surrounding waters when they detected a vessel the Amelita, allegedly fishing inside a Marine protected areas.

Bethune boarded the vessel, filmed the catch, and interviewed the Captain, who claimed to be the President of the Commercial Fisherman's Association in Puntarenas.

[70] In another fishery patrol mission in Costa Rica, Bethune and a crew of four took their 7.7m Sealegs vessel 300 nautical miles offshore to Cocos Island.

Each episode involves Bethune and his team examining some form of environmental criminal activity working alongside existing law enforcement units.

[75] In 2015, Bethune presented a 200,000 strong petition to Jake Jacobs, Secretary of the Namibian National Assembly, asking the government to abandon the seal clubbing industry.

[76] In 2013, Bethune assembled his team in Costa Rica and they ran several missions targeting illegal gold mining in the Corcovado National Park, training and working alongside the government MINAE forces.

[citation needed] He believes that as airports have improved security, boats have become increasingly used in the transport of illicit goods, including protected wildlife, out of the Amazon.

[citation needed] There were a number of similarities between the stabbing of Bethune in Santander, and the murder of Sir Peter Blake, a few kilometers away in Macapá.

[citation needed] He arrived at Golfito Hospital some three hours after the initial bite, and was immediately admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, where he was treated with a combination of anti-venom, antibiotics and morphine.

[10] Bethune, who was initially asleep at the time of the attack, said that the pirate boats drifted astern, before eventually starting their engines again and motoring off towards the main port.

[89] Buenaventura has had a notorious history plagued by the Colombian armed conflict, drug trafficking, violence, and the presence of guerrilla and paramilitary groups.

[90] Due to the violence of Buenaventura, The New York Times wrote an article with the title being "Cocaine Wars Make Port Colombia’s Deadliest City".