Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Wednesday announced that Australia will send aircraft and a customs ship to monitor Japanese whaling vessels off Antarctica.
A fleet of Japanese whalers were on their way to the Antarctic Ocean to hunt the huge marine animal, this time including 50 famed humpback whales.
Smith said the Australian vessel, Ocean Viking, an icebreaker, will shadow the fleet. However, it will not be armed and will not use force.
"It will be surveillance, not enforcement, or intervention," Smith told reporters here.
"For the purposes of that surveillance, the customs boarding party will not be armed, and the Ocean Viking will not be armed," he said.
He said he has already made representations to the Japanese government.
"The Australian Government will take all diplomatic measures to seek to persuade the Japanese Government to stop the whale slaughter," he said.
Smith said Australia has commenced a formal diplomatic protest.
"We will appoint a diplomatic envoy to seek to persuade the Japanese Government of the correctness and the rightness of our cause," he said.
Meanwhile, Smith said the Australian government is also considering pursuing international legal action.
The Australian attorney-general has commissioned Commonwealth Government and independent legal advice to see what options Australia can take against the whaling, said Smith.
Japan kills 1,000 whales annually. The Japanese agriculture, forestry and fishery ministry's hunting target for this year is 1,035.
Source: Xinhua
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