Anti-whaling activists have increased pressure on Australia’s conservative Liberal-National Government to send an Australian Customs vessel to the Southern Ocean this summer.
The Sea Shepherd organisation says it has had word the whaling ship, the Nisshin Maru, is preparing to depart Japan.
This year a crew of 100 people from more than 20 countries will be on board Sea Shepherd’s three vessels.
ABC News reports the Sea Shepherd fleet is in the final stages of preparation for the voyage, but has not yet heard whether an Australia Customs and Border Protection vessel will be following it south.
Before the September federal election the Liberal-National coalition indicated it would want to send a Customs vessel to observe the whaling hunt and put pressure on Japan.
ABC News reports the previous Labor government resisted calls from Sea Shepherd to patrol the Southern Ocean.
However, last week a spokesman for the Liberal-National Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the government remained committed to “monitoring and observing” the Japanese fleet.
Sea Shepherd’s chairman, former Australian Greens Party leader Dr Bob Brown, said the federal government needed to honour its commitment.
“The Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt promised in May this year in the run to the election that if the Japanese whaling ships went south there’d be Customs vessels from Australia going south,” he said.
“So we need to hear from the Prime Minister (Tony Abbott) that that promise to the Australian people will be kept,” Dr Brown said
Sea Shepherd’s global head Alex Cornelissen said the protesters were prepared for a rough ride.
“Every year we’ve seen more and more aggression from the Japanese side so I definitely think our crews are going to be facing some pretty serious situations,” he said.
Sea Shepherd’s Australian director Jeff Hansen said there were significant clashes last summer.
“They almost sank the Bob Barker,” he said.
Sea Shepherd says the group saved about 930 whales last season, which was their most successful yet.
ABC News reports the activist group’s fleet is expecting to depart in just over a week.
