Australian Police Seize Sea Shepherd Whale War Videos
HOBART, Tasmania, February 22, 2009 (ENS) – When the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Steve Irwin arrived in Hobart, Tasmania on February 20 from confronting the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, a party of Australian Federal Police officers boarded the conservation vessel with a warrant.
The warrant authorized the confiscation of “all edited and raw video footage, all edited and raw audio recordings, all still photographs, producer’s notes, interview transcripts, production meeting minutes, post production meeting minutes as well as the ship’s log books, global positioning system records, automatic radar plotting aid, purchase records, receipts, financial transaction records, voyage information and navigational plotted charts.”
Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson on the deck of the Steve Irwin. January 6, 2009. (Photo by Eric Cheng courtesy Sea Shepherd Conservation Society)
Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson says much of material seized belongs to the Discovery Channel’s Animal Planet producer and camera crew who were videoing the confrontations with the Japanese whaling fleet for the second season of the series “Whale Wars,” which last year proved to be a popular offering for the American television channel.
The police have refused to give details about the search, saying only that it was done at the request of “Japanese authorities.”
“The Animal Planet series ‘Whale Wars’ was very embarrassing to the Japanese government and the Japanese whaling industry in 2008,” said Watson. “Japan does not wish to see the airing of the second season of Whale Wars and is putting as much diplomatic pressure on Australia as they possibly can to prevent further exposure of their illegal whaling operations in the Southern Ocean.”
The television channel “has a team of lawyers working on it,” Watson said. “That footage is extremely valuable to them. We are literally looking at $20 million worth of footage.”
Watson, a Canadian at the helm of a Dutch-flagged vessel, said he had not been told whether nor not he or his crew face charges and, if so, under what law.
The Japanese have accused the Steve Irwin of ramming two of its whaling vessels and trying to foul their propellers during confrontations in the Ross Sea during the first week of February.
The owner of the Japanese vessels in the Antarctic said February 10 that “the international community must start applying global maritime laws, which protect ships and their crews from the type of violence being perpetrated on the high-seas by the renegade Dutch vessel, Steve Irwin.”
Sea Shepherd crew member in a small inflatable boat is in the path of the Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru in the Ross Sea. February 4, 2009 (Photo by Adam Lau courtesy Sea Shepherd)
Kazuo Yamamura, the president of Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, Limited, said, “A group of extremists is deliberately ramming vessels and trying to disable their propellers. The United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea establishes clear rules to prevent the high seas from being a lawless zone. Living up to these UNCLOS obligations represents a test for the governments of the Netherlands and Australia, which have so far hesitated to apply agreed international maritime rules to prevent these criminal acts.”
“The escalating terror attacks will necessitate consideration of new security strategies to protect our ships and crews,” Yamamura said.
Watson accuses the Japanese of attacking his vessel and using a sonic weapon to disable the crew while he was attempting to prevent the killing of whales in the Australian whale sanctuary around Antarctica.
“It’s a very one-sided affair,” Watson said. “The Japanese ships have not been boarded by the Australian Federal Police; they have not had their video and navigational data confiscated. They have not been questioned nor will they be, yet they violently attacked my ship and crew in the Southern Ocean.”
An Antarctic minke whale carcass is hauled aboard the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru, one of more than 900 the Japanese have assigned themselves as a quota this season. February 6, 2009. (Photo courtesy Institute of Cetacean Research)
“Does the law only go to bat for those who destroy nature’s creation? Are we about to see the ultimate kangaroo court where Sea Shepherd will be legally crucified because the Australian government has not lived up to their promise of taking the whale killers to court?” Watson asked.
“The truth is that we would not have to be in the Southern Ocean defending the whales if the governments of the world would simply enforce the international conservation treaties they once so proudly signed into law,” said Watson. “Without enforcement there is no law – just ecological anarchy.”
Australian Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown, who represents Tasmania, has demanded that the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd explain the raid on the Sea Shepherd’s anti-whaling ship Steve Irwin.
Senator Brown Saturday wrote to the prime minister calling for an immediate explanation on how the raid could be justified, or in the nation’s interest.
“Otherwise Mr. Rudd should order the immediate return of the film and other materials seized from the Steve Irwin to Sea Shepherd and the international media organisations which are aboard,” said the senator. “If this action was taken at the behest of the Japanese authorities it will outrage many Australians.”
“The Australian Federal Police can expect detailed questioning from the Greens at Senate Estimates this coming week,” Senator Brown said.
Environment Minister Peter Garrett and Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus have declined to say whether they had advance knowledge of the raid.
Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett (Photo courtesy Office of the Minister)
In a speech February 18 to The Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney on the future of international whale conservation, Garrett said the Rudd Government is opposed to Japanese whaling and is using diplomatic channels to express its disapproval, although he did not comment directly on the Sea Shepherd’s actions to interfere with the Japanese whaling fleet.
“The Government has embarked on an intensive diplomatic campaign to persuade Japan to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean,” said Garrett. “The Prime Minister, the foreign minister, myself, our Special Envoy Sandy Hollway, our Ambassador to Japan, and many officials have been working hard on this throughout last year and the effort continues this year. The government has created a serious dialogue with Japan with the aim of delivering real change in the coming months.”
Garrett said the conflict with Japan over its so-called “scientific research” whaling “gives us a needless running sore in one of Australia’s most important bilateral relationships.”
“We have made clear to Japan that we wish to get away from the kind of endless wheel-spinning, which is the only possible result of each side tirelessly reiterating arguments well known to the other. We want to give dialogue and confidence-building a chance to work. We still look to Japan to respond in the same spirit.”
Sea Shepherd crew members are hosed by water cannons from Japanese harpoon whaling ship, the Yushin Maru No. 1, as the Sea Shepherd helicopter flies alongside. February 4, 2009 (Photo by Steve Roest courtesy Sea Shepherd)
“I wish that the Australian government would apply the same “diplomatic” pressure on Japan to end their illegal whaling operations,” said Watson. “The Rudd government was elected on a promise to take the Japanese whaling industry to court for their illegal whaling activities. Now they seem to be more interested in taking Sea Shepherd to court for our efforts to intervene against illegal whaling operations.”
“The annual spectacle of Japan’s hunt in the Southern Ocean has angered Australians because they are opposed to whaling,” Garrett said. “The fact that whales which visit Australia’s coastlines journey to the Southern Ocean adds to that concern. And it aggravates the problem further that Japan’s hunt defies the international moratorium on commercial whaling, that it takes place in the IWC’s Southern Ocean Sanctuary, and that it is predicated on a false scientific rationale.”
“The fact is, this is just a recipe for the continuation of what we have seen this summer in the Southern Ocean, and observed the summer before that,” the minister said, referring obliquely to the confrontations between conservationists and whalers.
Watson said he would welcome a trial, saying, “Let us get the evidence on the table and although a trial against Sea Shepherd and myself may not allow the introduction of evidence about Japan’s illegal whaling operations, it at least will give us the forum to present our evidence.”
“Let’s see the Australian government bring the Japanese whale killers to Australia to bear witness against Sea Shepherd and Animal Planet,” Watson said, “and let’s see them appear as witnesses for the government of Australia that professes to be against whaling.”
On January 15, 2008, the Australian Federal Court ruled that the Japanese whaling company is in breach of Australian law when it kills whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary and ordered that the hunt be stopped.
The case brought by the Humane Society International was the first time the Japanese whalers were taken to court and the ruling confirms that the hunt is illegal. Still, the Japanese whaling fleet returned to kill whales in the Australian sanctuary this season, and it was this whale hunt that the Sea Shepherd was attempting to stop.
The Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin in Hobart, Tasmania for refueling January 2009 (Photo courtesy Office of Senator Bob Brown)
Meanwhile, Watson says he will repair damages to the Steve Irwin, which is named after the late Australian television personality, wildlife expert, and conservationist.
Watson intends to buy a second, faster vessel and prepare to return to the Southern Ocean to confront the Japanese again during the 2009-2010 whaling season.
The Steve Irwin pursued the Japanese whaling fleet for over 2000 miles between December 18, 2008 and January 7, 2009, disrupting their whaling operations for 19 days. After refueling in Australia, the conservation vessel returned and relocated the whaling fleet, shutting down operations of the fleet for an additional 8 days in February 2009..
The Sea Shepherd activities will be funded in part by proceeds from the Dutch Postcode Lottery. On February 5 at a gala televised event, the Sea Shepherd received a check for 500,000 euros (US$646,000 or A$992,000).
This year the Dutch Prime Minister Dr. Jan Peter Balkenende was onstage for this event. In addition to this 2009 donation, Sea Shepherd has been granted a four year donation contract ensuring additional funding in future years.
“This extremely generous cumulative donation is in recognition of Sea Shepherd’s long-term commitment to marine conservation globally and it is one of the largest in Sea Shepherd’s history,” Watson said. “The Dutch Postcode Lottery’s support will also stand as a landmark of institutional legitimacy for all that Sea Shepherd represents and a financial beacon for present and future donors and supporters whose donations have and will continue to sustain the organization.”
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