NZ to fight rare whale slaughter

The Government will consider legal action to prevent Japan's bid to kill humpback whales in Antarctica's Ross Sea.

Japan is preparing a bid to the International Whaling Commission next month to catch the endangered whales under its "scientific whaling" programme.

The Australian Government is already in court - but it is fighting on the side of the Japanese as an environmental group attempts to have whalers banned from the Australian-monitored waters around Antarctica.

In a bid to avoid a diplomatic row with Japan, Australia's attorney-general told the court his Government would not board or prevent Japanese whalers operating in Australian waters.

Until now Japan has conducted most of its whaling further north, targeting the relatively common minke whale.

New Zealand Conservation Minister Chris Carter told the Herald on Sunday Japan's new plans were an "outrage", and he would look at legal action to prevent any Japanese incursion. He would need advice on whether that action came under New Zealand or international law.

Mr Carter, who was whalewatching in Kaikoura yesterday, said the humpbacks migrated through New Zealand waters, so "these are our whales too".

"New Zealand has a territorial claim on the Ross Sea ... It gives us a right to comment on this," he said.

But he acknowledged that New Zealand could not take physical action against Japanese whalers in the Ross Sea.

"At least Norway and Iceland only whale in their own waters. Japan is the only country that does it around the world, including in the Southern Ocean.

"It's selling all the meat in the Japanese fish markets and giving free samples to Japanese schools to persuade children that whale is good to eat."

New Zealand's representative on the International Whaling Commission, former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer, said he would fight Japan's proposal at the commission meeting.

"All the science that is needed can be done by non-lethal means, and we oppose any plan to expand the scientific whaling programme," he said.

"A lot of the whales down there come past New Zealand on the way there and on the way back, so we do feel a proprietory interest in them."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY