Sea Shepherd protesters freed 'only if whaling protests stop'

THE Japanese whaling ship holding two activists, including an Australian, will release the men only if a list of conditions is met, the Sea Shepherd conservation group says.

Australian Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35, crew members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Steve Irwin, boarded the Japanese harpoon vessel Yushin Maru No. 2 in Antarctic waters yesterday afternoon to deliver a written plea to stop killing whales.

A witness said the pair were tied to the rails of the ship and immersed up to their waists in freezing seawater after an attempt to throw one overboard.

Sea Shepherd founder and Steve Irwin captain Paul Watson said today he had received an email from the Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) which said a halt to protests by the ship was a condition of returning his crew.

"They are saying that we have to agree to not take any action against their whaling activities, not to video or photo their whaling activities and want us to send a boat - a small zodiac - 10 miles over the horizon to pick up my crew, which I am not going to do," Mr Watson said.

"It endangers the life of the crew, to put them out in these waters in a small boat, 10 miles out of view. So I am not going to meet these demands.

"When you hold hostages and make demands, that is the definition of a terrorist organisation, and that is the way they are acting."

ICR spokesman Glenn Inwood earlier said the Steve Irwin was deliberately avoiding Japanese attempts to hand over the two men.

Mr Inwood said phone calls and emails to the Steve Irwin to arrange the handover had been unsuccessful.

"I believe that they want to continue this for as long as possible," Mr Inwood said on Sky News.

Mr Watson said he would happily take his crew back if there were no conditions on their return.

"If they want to bring their boat up here and drop these guys off we will pick them up. But we are not going to cease and desist from interfering in their illegal whaling activities as a condition," he said.

He said he had been contacted by the Australian Federal Police who had told him Japan had agreed to return the men without any conditions, but he was yet to have this confirmed by Japanese whalers.

The chief of the whaling section of The Fisheries Agency of Japan, Hideki Moronuki, said the men would not be released until the conditions were agreed to.

"Immediately that Paul Watson has accepted the conditions of the safety of the Japanese vessel, they will release the two illegal intruders," he told Fairfax online.

Earlier, Sea Shepherd said it would launch its own "aggressive" rescue of the two activists if it had to.

Mr Watson said his crew would consider a mission if the men were not returned.

"It is always a possibility. I mean, we do have a reputation for being aggressive. We are non-violent, we have never injured anybody, but we are certainly not afraid of taking aggressive measures," Mr Watson said.

"We have got some ideas, but we have to look at putting them in place." 

Federal Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Japanese officials had instructed the whaling ship to return the men to the Steve Irwin.

"My most recent advice is that that transfer has not yet occurred and I'm calling upon both parties, both the Steve Irwin and Sea Shepherd and the Japanese whaling vessel, to effect immediately their safe return of the two men concerned," he said on ABC radio today.

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