Sea Sheperd members in bitter row over sunken anti-whaling boat

Captain of the hi-tech Ady Gil Peter Bethune recently alleged that he was ordered to scuttle the boat by Sea Sheperd head Paul Watson. Behtane was captain when the boat’s bow was shorn off in a collision with a Japanese whaler it was shadowing in January.

The boat sank two days later.

Watson has denied the claims, making it the latest twist in an escalating argument between the two.

Observers have noted that the feud threatens to undermine the position of the anti-whaling lobby in the publicity battle over Japan’s whaling programme.

Bethune had said on New Zealand’s national radio that he believed Watson wanted the boat to sink in order to "garner sympathy with the public and to create better TV".

"Paul Watson was my admiral. He gave me an order and I carried it out," Bethune said. "I was ashamed of it at the time and I'm ashamed of it now."

However, Watson denied the allegations, saying Bethune was bitter because he had fallen out with Sea Shepherd.

"No-one ordered him to scuttle it. Pete Bethune was captain of the Ady Gil, all decisions on the Ady Gil were his," Watson reportedly said.

Sea Shepherd garnered attention when the futuristic trimaran Ady Gil pursued the Japanese whaler Shonan Maru 2 through Antarctic waters in January this year, documented for Discovery programme Whale Wars.

The incident initiated controversy when Bethune boarded the Shonan Maru 2 to confront the captain over the collision, which resulted in the boat’s sinking.

Bethune spent five months in a Japanese jail awaiting trial and was finally given a suspended sentence after admitting obstructing commercial activities, trespass, vandalism and carrying a knife.

Watson has reportedly said that Bethune was expelled from Sea Shepherd in October after it was discovered the New Zealander had given false information to Japanese authorities about Watson in exchange for leniency.