O 120621Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY CANBERRA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0982
INFO AMEMBASSY TOKYO 
AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 
AMCONSUL MELBOURNE 
AMCONSUL PERTH 
AMCONSUL SYDNEY 
THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC
DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC

C O N F I D E N T I A L CANBERRA 000142 
 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR OES/OPA PHELPS, COMMERCE FOR NOAA/NMFS WULFF, 
TOKYO FOR ESTH COBBS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/13/2019 
TAGS: SENV EFIS PREL AS
SUBJECT: SEA SHEPHERD BACKS OFF, AUSTRALIA PESSIMISTIC ON 
DEAL 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 12845 
     ¶B. ATKINSON-PHELPS EMAIL 2/5/2009 
 
Classified By: Economic Counselor Edgard Kagan, Reasons 1.4(b)(d) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: The aggressive actions by both the Sea 
Shepherd group and the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern 
Ocean during the week of February 2-6 have resulted in the 
Sea Shepherd's calling off of their harassment campaign for 
this season.  The Australian government is taking a low-key 
approach to the event, in an effort to prevent a diplomatic 
escalation to match that taking place at sea.  They will 
investigate the actions of both groups, but do not expect any 
findings in the near term.  The GOA wants to continue 
consultations with countries to keep positive momentum going 
in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) small working 
group format, and wants to send Special Envoy Sandy Hollway 
to Washington to consult with U.S. counterparts soon. 
Environment Minister Garrett continues to be the Government's 
public face on the whaling issue, but his involvement in 
preparing Australia's diplomatic strategy is limited.  End 
Summary. 
 
COLLISION RAMPS UP CONFRONTATION 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) The Steve Irwin, the flagship vessel of anti-whaling 
NGO Sea Shepherd Conservation collided with the Japanese 
whaler Yushin Maru No 2 on February 6.  Sea Shepherd founder 
Paul Watson, the Steve Irwin's captain claimed his vessel was 
trying to interrupt whaling operations.  Japanese media 
reports claimed that the Sea Shepherd vessel tried to 
entangle Japanese propellers and activists threw rancid 
butter at the whaling fleet.   Watson was quoted in 
Australian media as saying that the emergence of a second 
Japanese ship made the collision inevitable, and said the 
Japanese whalers were acting "increasingly aggressive," and 
threatening the lives of his crew.  One crew member on the 
Steve Irwin required five stitches after being injured when 
disorientated by a long-range acoustic device, according to 
the Sea Shepherd releases.  Video of the collision shows 
Japanese crews using high pressure water cannons against the 
Steve Irwin crewmembers as well. 
 
¶3. (U) Watson said in a February 9 statement that the Steve 
Irwin was heading back to Australia with only four days of 
fuel reserves left. "Another four days is simply not worth 
getting someone killed," Watson told media outlets. "We have 
done everything we could with the resources available to us 
this year," he said in a statement. "We have cost them money 
and we have saved the lives of a good many whales."  Watson 
reportedly claimed on February 10 that further escalation 
would risk human lives.  The withdrawal was not a sign that 
Sea Shepherds were giving up, Watson said.  Watson, who 
enjoys celebrity status in Australia, frequently appearing as 
a guest on the Australian Broadcast Corporation's 
youth-oriented Triple J radio, promised to return next season 
- and said he hoped to come with a faster ship to harass the 
whaling fleet.  He further claimed that he was headed for the 
U.S. McMurdo base on the southern edge of Antarctica's Ross 
Sea, concerned that a Japanese force was preparing to board 
the Steve Irwin. 
 
ESCALATION NOT CHANGING AUSTRALIAN POLICY 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (C/NF) Australia does not foresee a change in diplomatic 
Q4. (C/NF) Australia does not foresee a change in diplomatic 
strategy in response to the Japanese demarche of February 5, 
DFAT's David Dutton told Econoff on February 9.  Neither 
Environment Minister Garret nor Foreign Minister Smith has 
commented publicly on recent events in the Southern Ocean. 
Australian maritime and police authorities will investigate 
claims that the actions of the Sea Shepherd group and/or the 
Japanese whaling fleet constituted crimes over which 
Australian authorities would have some jurisdiction.  Such an 
investigation, Dutton said, would "take 18 months" to deliver 
any finding.  While he refused to confirm whether the 
Japanese had asked for arrest and extradition of Sea shepherd 
members based on the early February events, he foresaw no 
room for a positive response to such requests. He noted that 
the Attorney-General had turned down a request in December. 
Dutton said he found the timing of the Sea Shepherd 
withdrawal from the Southern Ocean strange, as they believed 
that the vessel Steve Irwin had more than enough fuel to 
continue to harass the Japanese fleet.  In Dutton's view, it 
is possible that the group feared, following the 
more-aggressive than previous Japanese reaction, that a 
boarding action or more violent confrontation was in the 
offing, and hence cut their activities short with the 
face-saving claim of fuel shortages.   Dutton also said that 
their analysis seemed to indicate that the Japanese had far 
better intelligence on the group this year. 
 
¶5. (C/NF) According to Dutton, the leak of information on 
discussions in the IWC Small Working Group (ref. A) had put 
pressure on Environment Minister Garrett, but also forced the 
issue of Australia's position into the public domain.  He 
said that this had been beneficial in some ways, as it had 
increased pressure for a dialog between GOA and the NGO 
community on what Australia's future position might be. 
Hollway and Dutton will be holding private meetings with NGO 
groups over the weekend in Sydney.  Dutton said that 
Australia might be prepared to "take the (political) pain" of 
acceding to a package deal that includes Japanese coastal 
whaling, but only if it delivered Australia's immediate goal 
of ending scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean.  Such an 
acceptance, Dutton suggested, would be temporary and really 
only sustainable if it delivered a complete cessation of 
whale killing in the Southern Ocean.   Given the difficult 
policy decisions this would require on both sides, Dutton 
expressed concern that any deal would be extremely unlikely 
between now and the Madeira meetings. 
 
HOLLWAY TO VISIT DC 
------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Dutton said that Australian Special Envoy Sandy 
Hollway was interested in visiting Washington, with Dutton, 
preferably the week of March 23, to confer with U.S. 
counterparts.  Dutton said that DFAT was preparing a demarche 
for Washington urging strong support for IWC Chair Hogarth 
continuing in that capacity through the Madeira IWC meetings, 
as the Deputy chair was Japanese and a change before then 
would severely harm chances of a positive outcome.  Dutton 
has also proposed a phone discussion with OES and NMFS staff 
prior to the next intersessional meetings (ref B.) 
 
¶7. (C) Opposition Environment Spokesman (shadow minister) 
Greg Hunt told us February 10 that while he believes that a 
whaling deal with Japan is very unlikely, the Opposition 
would almost certainly oppose any agreement that appeared to 
legalize whaling.  He said that the Government appears to 
believe that Australians oppose whaling near Australia when 
in fact they oppose whaling globally.  Hunt said that the 
Opposition believes that the Rudd Government made an initial 
mistake in taking too aggressive an approach with Japan, but 
that it is now going too far in trying to cut a deal with 
Tokyo. 
 
¶8. (C/NF) Comment: The tragic Victorian wildfires have 
largely kept the whaling news off the front pages in 
Australia, but politics surrounding the issue continues in 
Canberra.  Hollway, DFAT and Foreign Minister Smith clearly 
have the lead on this issue, despite Garrett's public 
fronting of the issue when the leak was revealed in late 
Qfronting of the issue when the leak was revealed in late 
January (ref A.)  Garrett's deputy chief of staff, Kate 
Pasterfield, lamented the fact that Hollway (who answers to 
PM Rudd, not Garrett) and DFAT were running a diplomatic 
strategy without much input from Garrett's ministry or 
advisors, telling econoff on February 5 that Garrett and his 
team were "taking the fall" publicly for the whaling issue. 
Garrett's reputation as an uncompromising advocate for 
conservation, which stems from his time as frontman for 
envirorockers Midnight Oil and his leading the Australian 
Conservation Foundation, has  been hurt by the recognition 
that Australia may accept some form of whaling as long as it 
not in the Southern Ocean. End Comment. 
 
CLUNE