A high-tech speedboat owned by the controversial Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group has apparently sunk after a collision with one of the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean.

The collision happened earlier this week when the Ady Gil, a high-tech catamaran originally built to break round the world sailing records, collided with the whaling vessel Shonan Maru No. 2. Both sides blamed each other for the smash, which sliced off the front of the Ady Gil (see: Sea Shepherd ship ‘sinking’ after collision with whaling vessel).

In a statement posted today on its website under the headline ‘Rammed Vessel Ady Gil Sinks’, Sea Shepherd says it has reported the last known position of the Ady Gill after a rope it was using to tow the partially submerged craft snapped. The crew of the ship had already been evacuated along with, according to the group, “all fuel and lubricants”.

Of course the Japanese Institute for Cetacean Research don’t agree with the Sea Shepherd version of events. They have accused the group of abandoning the vessel. In a statement also released today they say the hulk of the Ady Gill is now drifting and “an oily substance thought to be fuel is leaking from the Ady Gil and continues to spread over the sea surface”.

Image: the Ady Gill / Institute for Cetacean Research