Wings Clipped, or Feathers Just Ruffled?

I'm confused.
This week, just as the Nippon whaling fleet left for the Sthrn.Ocean, came news that Sea Shepherd's helicopter pilot was grounded!
Former US Marine chopper pilot Chris Aultman is SS's eye-in-the-sky, finding the fleet so protesters can harrass the hunters, and also providing an aerial platform for filming the Whale Wars tv series.
He says he's been denied a visa to join the activists in the Land of Oz. He says he's come to Australia for the past six years on an electronic travel authority visa, but this time was declined.
SS leader Paul Watson accuses: "It appears Australia is seeking to keep (SS's helo) grounded by denying a visa." The Immigration Dept.is seeking further info...
OK, so we have a sovereign nation supposedly blocking a visa. It's Oz's right to do that if it so desires - and I don't believe it has to explain why either. But already conspiracy theorists are claiming Japan has bribed Oz to block Aultman! Yea. Right.
All that aside, if Aultman doesn't reach Oz, it could be a painful hit for SS...unless it can recruit another pilot familiar with an MD 500 helo within the next few weeks.
However, several weeks earlier (18 Nov.2011) Paul Watson said Chris would NOT be joining the campaign "because of his mother’s critical health condition, so we'll have a new helicopter pilot with us"! A fundraising email had this reference to Chris edited out (it's still in the cached version on-line).
Update: Also at the bottom of yesterday's email was an addenda that Aultman has now been granted his Oz visa...curious.
+ ...meanwhile the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) has filed a lawsuit in the US agaist SS!
The ICR (and Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd, owner of two vessels contracted by ICR), seek to prevent SS from engaging in activities at sea that could cause injuries to the crews and damage to the vessels: "The plaintiffs support the right to legitimate/ peaceful forms of protest/ demonstration, and the lawsuit makes no attempt to curtail this right." That's mighty big of them! "Instead it seeks to establish clear legal boundaries between legitimate/ peaceful protest and illegal/ violent sabotage."
Paul Watson finds it amusing the Japanese could ''destroy a vessel, shoot at us, toss concussion grenades at us, ram us and attempt to kill us and then they file a lawsuit against us. Of course with a war chest of $NZ30m+ to work with, they can pursue numerous strategies. It will not deter us. We are not protesting whaling. We are opposing an illegal activity. We will respond accordingly in the courts if such is the case."
Wonder why it took so long for ICR come up with this idea?