Paul Watson: Has Australia surrendered to Japanese whalers?

Paul Watson

MELBOURNE - My crew and I are in Melbourne aboard our ship Farley Mowat making final preparations to head south to hunt for the pirate whaling fleet of Japan.

The Japanese fleet of six ships intends to continue its illegal slaughter of Antarctic Minke whales and is now targeting the endangered fin whales. Next year, they intend to target endangered Humpback whales.

Many of these whales will be cruelly slaughtered inside Australian Antarctic territorial waters with the passive permission of the government of Australia.

Although Australia has proclaimed sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT), it refuses to challenge Japan's invasion of these waters.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provides for an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) extending up to 200 nautical miles from the territorial coast. This means that Australia has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing natural resources.

In accordance with Australia's claim under international law and in accordance with Australian law, the AAT has been accepted as a territory of the Commonwealth (section 2 of the Australian Antarctic Territory Acceptance Act 1933).

As a matter of Australian law, the AAT is an external territory, and the relevant waters of the AAT are part of Australia's EEZ. Accordingly, the relevant provisions of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 apply to foreigners and foreign vessels in these waters.

Yet Japan has arrogantly ignored Australia's claim and has invaded Australian sovereign territory. This is essentially an act of war.

As citizens of Australia visit our ship in Melbourne they are expressing outrage at the lack of action by their government to oppose the killing of whales in the AAT.

The Australian government's pathetic excuse is that Japan does not recognise Australia's claim to the ATT.

Then again Japan did not recognise the claim to Australia by Australians when it declared war on Australia in the last century.

Non-recognition of Australia's claim to the AAT and associated EEZ by other states, as a matter of international law, does not preclude the application of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act as a matter of Australian law.

What the Australian government has effectively done is to abrogate their responsibilities to the protection and the security of the sovereign territory of Australia.

In so doing they may as well have designated the area as "Japanese Antarctic Territory".

The United Nations World Charter for Nature also empowers Australia to intervene to uphold international conservation law and it empowers non-governmental organisations such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to do the same.

But an NGO should not be shouldering the responsibilities of a nation that is legally responsible for enforcement of the law.

All it will take to save the whales is for one Australian naval vessel to confront the Japanese fleet in the AAT and simply order them to leave.

Or are they afraid that the Japanese will simply laugh in their face?

* Paul Watson is founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.