Activitists' pictures tell story of their capture

The three WA activists who illegally boarded a ship in the Japanese whaling fleet have released pictures of their six days aboard and revealed how they reached an uneasy truce with their captors.

Simon Peterffy said he and fellow protesters Geoffrey Tuxworth and Glen Pendlebury had a big block of ice thrown at them when they climbed aboard security vessel the Shonan Maru 2 off Bunbury on January 8.

Forest Rescue Australia leader Mr Peterffy said despite a hostile reception, a four-day hunger strike and tense diplomatic negotiations, the men left on good terms with some of the whalers.

But he conceded the first moments aboard were "pretty hairy".

"When we first boarded the boat, this guy came at us in this riot gear - that was pretty heavy from my point of view," he said. "As we were approaching the boat we saw them go into panic stations up on the deck and we jumped on.

"At that moment we had a 15kg to 20kg block of ice thrown at us, from a crewman on the upper deck."

Mr Peterffy said the guards were irate before realising the protesters were unarmed pacifists.

"They took us into a room and they had us under guard with those riot type dudes and then they attempted to question us and we said 'no comment'," he said.

"Then they took us to our cabin where we stayed, a little 2m by 2m cabin. There was always a guard with a baton. Whenever we left to go to the toilet, we were escorted by a guard with a baton."

Desperate to get back into Australian waters and fearing he would be offered whale meat, Mr Peterffy went on a hunger strike.

He ended the strike after four days when he received a letter from Prime Minister Julia Gillard telling of successful negotiations with the Japanese Government.

The three men were handed over to Australian authorities in the Southern Ocean on Friday and landed in Albany on Monday.

Mr Peterffy admitted the food was fairly challenging.

"It wasn't like the sushi bar we had down here in Fremantle," he joked.

"It was very different Japanese food, it was far more traditional and different from what we're used to.

"A lot of pickled vegetables, dried salty fish was common and rice and some things which were unrecognisable."

Mr Peterffy said the coastguards eventually relaxed their watch over the men, sending crew to guard them.

By the sixth day, the three protesters were joking with their warders and exchanging English lessons for cigarettes.

"A few of the older whalers had a few reservations and refused to acknowledge us or muttered English profanities at us," Mr Peterffy said.

Mr Peterffy appeared in Perth Magistrate's Court yesterday on charges relating to a separate protest.

The Bunbury man and four others are accused of entering offices of the Forest Products Commission and throwing rancid butter on a manager's desk last May. They deny aggravated burglary, property damage and aggravated assault and face trial in May.