My whale of a time

Andrew Mathieson
COURAGE is not a word Alex Wallman would utter inside the comforts of his art studio.
It is reserved for weeks at a time on a rickety ex-navy ship battling against angry Japanese whalers.
The Newtown-raised environmentalist is committed to heading out on the unforgiving seas for a cause – albeit a dangerous one.
The 27-year-old is one of the members of Sea Shepherds, a conservation society dedicated to preserving whales, dolphins and marine life against the annual slaughter.
Earlier this year, he joined a pursuit of Japanese whaling ships in the waters around Antarctica where lives were put on the line.
The mission of the Sea Shepherds members, among others, was to throw butyric acid on the Japanese decks to turn the flesh of whales rancid, making it impossible to process the meat.
The attack made international headlines after the group risked being shot to stop the cull.
But the end justifies the means, Alex maintains.
“When we were alongside them they started throwing flash-bang grenades at us,” Alex recalls.
“They were actually telling us what they were going to do to us next, so it was quite intimidating because they knew what they were doing.”
The grenades are the same weapons aggressive SWAT teams throw inside homes before a raid.
Alex was schooled to duck and cover with his mouth and ears wide open because of the grenade’s ability to rupture eardrums in confined areas.
Jumping on board and commandering the whaling vessels was the next move.
The risks were getting greater.
Destroying on-board hunting equipment and making citizen’s arrests could have crossed the line to committing piracy amid threats of prosecution.
“The Japanese said ‘If you come on, we’ll take you back to Japan and trial you for piracy’,” Alex broods.
“In the end, we just trailed them and we got in a few skirmishes.”
Softly spoken and affable, it’s hard to believe the former Geelong High School student could have an angry word for anyone.
When not on the seas, Alex communicates creative ideas for advertising.
The conservation activities have put his career into perspective.
“It’s very superficial and you don’t deal with real issues,” Alex observes.
“I wouldn’t say you have a lot of interest in anything that’s greater than yourself or the company.
“That was always something that I sort of felt was a bit hollow.”
A friend in a café first convinced him four years ago there was more to life than meeting deadlines.
Alex, who had dreams of becoming a park ranger, put his life on hold to get on board.
“He was talking about heroes and was basically saying to hell with all these people that everyone is looking up to in the media like Paris Hilton and celebrities like that,” Alex explains.
“There are people in the world who are actually doing real things that matter.”
In the role of quartermaster, Alex casts an eye over navigation and guards the ship in port at night.
Working four-hour shifts both day and night, he found sleeping in the cabin hard from noises that resembled “a giant squid sucking onto the hull”.
Facing 10-metre swells that broke over the ship’s bow was just par for the course.
So were horizontal hail, sleet and even snow.
Without engine power, several times the ship was in danger of turning broadside and capsizing.
Away for 83 days and covering 20,090 nautical miles – the equivalent to 37,206 kilometres – a first-ever trip to Antarctica was always a daunting task.
More so when Alex’s only previous experience on the ocean was a nothing more than a fishing tinnie.
“Within about 45 minutes of getting through Port Phillip Heads to Bass Strait, I looked at myself in the mirror and I looked like I’d had about 30 beers,” he says.
“I basically vomited for seven hours.
“I just thought this is actually going to be what my whole campaign is: holding onto the toilet and praying to God.”