A GREENPEACE protest ship is in pursuit of a fleet of Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean after finding the vessels early this morning.
Expedition leader aboard the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza, Karli Thomas, said the six Japanese ships fled when Greenpeace located them shortly after midnight (AEDT).
"The first thing they did when we approached them was to scatter and run," Ms Thomas said.
"We stayed with the factory ship the Nisshin Maru, which is always the major target," she said.
She said Greenpeace was engaged in high-speed pursuit of the whaling ships and would take non-violent action to stop them hunting more of the marine mammals.
Greenpeace has vowed to stay in pursuit of the whaling fleet for as long as necessary to prevent the killing of whales.
"We will continue to do that - as long as we are in pursuit, the ship will not be capable of whaling,'' head of Greenpeace Australia and Pacific, Steve Shallhorn, said.
"If whaling does resume we will be there to prevent whales being killed."
Greenpeace broadcasted a message in Japanese and English to the whaling ships condemning the hunt and insisted they to return to port immediately.
"Your so-called scientific whaling is a hoax and has been dismissed as useless by the International Whaling Commission. Modern scientific research on whales does not require killing them," the message said.
Ms Thomas said the crew gave a collective sigh of relief after locating the Japanese ships so quickly.
The Esperanza left Auckland on December 22, but has only been in the Southern Ocean for 10 days.
International spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, Glenn Inwood, said his organisation believed Greenpeace used whaling as a way of fundraising.
"We have made our views known on the whole Greenpeace thing. Japan's research is legal. What (protest groups) Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace do is illegal," he said.
Australian customs vessel the Oceanic Viking left Western Australia on Tuesday to monitor the Japanese fleet at work.
The Australian ship plans to spend 20 days gathering video and photographic evidence for a possible international court case against Japanese whaling.
Japan plans to kill 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales, which conservationists say are endangered, during this year's hunt as part of what it claims to be a research program.
Plans to hunt 50 humpback whales were dropped by Japan after heavy pressure from Australia and America.
The confrontation in the Southern Ocean is the first since last year, when the Japanese whale hunt ended early due to an accidental fire aboard the Nisshin Maru that killed one crew member.
AAP
WHEN the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior was sunk by the French in the port of Auckland in 1985 the world was appalled.
The bombing of the converted trawler was deplored as a violent and dangerous act: Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira was killed.
But in a bizarre development, a founding member of Greenpeace has embraced the tactics of the French secret service. Canadian Paul Watson is a sinker of ships.
Captain Watson left Greenpeace in 1977 and formed the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society -- a vigilante environmentalist group that has sunk 10 ships since 1979. Sea Shepherd's actions have split the green movement between those advocating direct action and those espousing persuasion and engagement.
Battling whalers in the Southern Ocean, the crew of Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin yesterday welcomed the return of two fellow crew members from a Japanese whaler where they had been held since Wednesday, and where they attracted worldwide attention since boarding the Yushin Maru No2 in what many experts say was a breach of international maritime law.
Mr Watson is now pondering the next phase of his campaign.
Ship sinking was warranted in the battle to halt whaling, said Sea Shepherd executive director Kim McCoy.
Speaking from on board the Steve Irwin, Ms McCoy said the group had never hurt anyone.
"They were all sunk when nobody was on board," she said via satellite phone.
"All precautions were taken not to take life. No one has ever been injured in our 30-year history. But we have no problem in destroying property, the instruments of death."
Sea Shepherd has scuttled ships in Norway, Iceland, South Africa, Spain and Portugal as part of its unrelenting battle against whaling.
Ms McCoy confirmed that another of the Sea Shepherd ships, the Farley Mowat, had a reinforced hull to give it the capacity to ram whalers.
"Anybody who criticises what we do here, I would encourage them to encourage their governments to come out and enforce their laws," she said.
"We are in a whale sanctuary, it's designated as a whale sanctuary, and they are hunting whales."
She refused to comment on Mr Watson's Sea Shepherd website admission that he "hunted" elephant poachers in East Africa in the 1970s, or on the allegation that he helped invent the practice of tree-spiking, the potentially lethal habit of inserting metal spikes into tree trunks where they might catch on a chainsaw.
The Steve Irwin crew had thrown butyric acid at the Japanese ship the Yushin Maru No2 in an attempt to slow its progress and get the missing pair back, Ms McCoy said. But the acid was a harmless, foul-smelling liquid, like rancid butter.
"You could pour it on your hands and it wouldn't hurt you. It's a really effective tool for clearing the decks."
While Sea Shepherd's tactics have been applauded by many people in theconservation movement, others warn that sinking ships does risk harming people -- particularly if a crew member were asleep, or drunk, or unconscious, or hidden away.
From the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, also battling whalers on the Southern Ocean, spokeswoman Sara Holden said Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd had a "difference of opinion as to what is an appropriate method of direct action".
She termed the Sea Shepherd's boarding of the the Yushin Maru as a "distraction".
"The way those actions are perceived in Japan, it gives them an excuse to not actually have the debate about whaling," she said. "The important thing is to generate debate in Japan, so the Japanese people can put pressure on their Government."
While reluctant to directly criticise Sea Shepherd tactics, Ms Holden said Greenpeace only ever used non-violent methods. "What we want to do is defend the whales, not attack the whaling fleet or the crew in any way."
The reasons why Mr Watson left Greenpeace in 1977 are explained on the Sea Shepherd website.
"Paul left Greenpeace because he felt the original goals of the organisation were being compromised, and because he saw a global need to continue direct action conservation activities on the high seas by an organisation that would enforce laws protecting marine wildlife," the website says.
Australian Greens senator Kerry Nettle said she supported the actions of Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd in the Southern Ocean. "People are trying to achieve the same thing using different tactics," she said. "The support for Sea Shepherd in the community is very strong, particularly at the moment."
Yet she said she did not think most people knew of Sea Shepherd's history of ship-sinking.
Sea Shepherd insists on the website that it is upholding international treaties, laws and conventions.