ELIZABETH JACKSON: A former member of the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd has accused the organisation of deliberately scuttling its vessel the Ady Gil to win public sympathy.
The Sea Shepherd organisation denies the claim and the millionaire benefactor after whom the vessel was named says he doesn't know what to believe.
Samantha Donovan reports.
SAMANTHA DONOVAN: In January the collision between the Sea Shepherd's high-tech trimaran the Ady Gil and a Japanese whaling vessel made headlines around the world.
The crew of each vessel accused the other of deliberate ramming. The Ady Gil sank two days later.
Pete Bethune the man who captained the trimaran has now claimed on Radio New Zealand that it was deliberately scuttled as a publicity stunt.
PETE BETHUNE: The boat was definitely salvageable. It was still rock solid from the engine room and the sponsons back. It would have stayed afloat for sure.
SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Pete Bethune claims that not all the crew knew what was planned - only himself, Sea Shepherd leader captain Paul Watson and another crew member.
PETE BETHUNE: It was done in the evening when there was very few people outside. And it was just made to look like we just went for a trip out to the boat.
The really dishonest thing about it is if they really wanted to scuttle the boat they should have just come clean and said, look we can't lose more time against the whalers. We are going to leave the boat here and scuttle it.
But instead they scuttled it but did it secretly. And I was ordered not to tell any of the crew, not my family and especially not Ady Gil. Now Ady Gil was the owner of the boat.
Just so dishonest and I am embarrassed for my role in it.
SAMANTHA DONOVAN: A month after the Ady Gil sank Pete Bethune boarded the Japanese whaling vessel that had collided with it.
He was arrested and spent five months in prison.
Earlier this week Sea Shepherd said it had cut all ties with Pete Bethune claiming that he had given false testimony to the Japanese authorities about captain Paul Watson.
On its website Sea Shepherd strongly denies Pete Bethune's claim about the Ady Gil.
Coppied by http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s3032895.htm
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