Representing the Japanese whalers, attorney John Neupert from law firm Miller Nash LLP out of Portland, Oregon, refers to a stack of binders containing thousands of documents he presents as evidence during a contempt hearing against the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, in Seattle, Washington on November 6, 2013. With Jeff Hansen, Co-Director of Sea Shepherd Australia on the stand, Neubert argues that the Sea Shepherd violated a court injunction when they disrupted the Japanese whale hunt in the Southern Ocean in during the 2012-2013 campaign. Hansen argues he is from Australia following Australian law on Australian waters where US courts have no jurisdiction.
The Japanese whalers include the Institute of Cetacean Research, Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, Ltd., Tomoyuki Ogawa, Toshiyuki Miura and Hiroyuki Komura. Evidence presented during the trial was largely inner-organization emails, org charts, tax forms and social media postings.