Photo: © 2010 AP via AAP/Institute of Cetacean Research

Following an eventful summer that saw one of their ships sunk and its captain detained on board a whaling ship he then boarded, Sea Shepherd's anti-whaling fleet docked in Hobart on Saturday.

But rather than signal an end to the summer's whaling war, the issue was sparked up again by an Australian Federal Police raid of the fleet's two surviving ships.

Acting on complaints from Japanese authorities over clashes in the Southern Ocean, the AFP collected video, documents and other material from the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker.

No charges have been laid yet, but Captain Watson says bring it on.

"I want to take this whole thing into an Australian court and expose everything that is going on all the illegal activities of the Japanese whaling fleet," he told a group of supporters.

"We are not eco-terrorists, whatever that means, and we are certainly not criminals."

While pressure from Japanese authorities sparked the raids, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says it would be inappropriate for him to interfere in a police investigation.

But Greens senator Bob Brown says he'll use Parliament this week to push for the Government to step in.

"It's just totally outrageous that Tokyo, using Australian police personnel, has raided the ship carrying these anti-whaling heroes back into port in Hobart," he told the ABC.