KEY POINTS:
Japanese whalers are expected to face the most powerful anti-whaling protest ship when they try to kill up to 1000 whales south of New Zealand this summer.
The Leviathan - a converted US Coast Guard ship - was recently bought by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Its leader Paul Watson has boasted of ramming whalers to stop them.
The 61-metre ship has a top speed of 17 knots, enough to run down the Japanese whalers, and the Leviathan crew won't be simply waving banners and trying to get in the way, Sydney's Sun Herald newspaper has reported.
Captain Watson, who has sunk 10 ships in his 27-year crusade to save the leviathans of the sea, has vowed to hurl all the might and speed of his new vessel against the Japanese whaling fleet.
Six Japanese ships are due in the Ross Sea out from New Zealand's Ross Dependency in the Antarctic waters in the next couple of weeks. They are expected to also hunt in waters off Australia's Antarctic territory.
Last year Captain Watson watched in frustration as the whalers outran his 48-year-old trawler Farley Mowat, which tried to ram and tear open the side of the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru.
This season, there is expected to be a protest fleet of four ships, two from Sea Shepherd and two from Greenpeace.
Sea Shepherd's actions have attracted controversy, drawing the ire of governments, the International Whaling Commission and other conservation organisations, including Greenpeace.
The fleet of six Japanese whalers includes the 8162-tonne Nisshin Maru, and catchers. Officials have said the fleet has a target of killing 850 minke whales and 10 fin whales before returning to Japan in April. Minke, a relatively small species, are fairly plentiful in the Antarctic. The larger fin whales are more rare.
Japan began conducting the annual research hunts after the International Whaling Commission imposed a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986.
Many environmental groups claim the research is a pretext for keeping whale meat on the market.
The scientific whaling programme, known as JARPA II, is run by the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research, which said last month: "Australia and New Zealand need to get their heads around the fact there is mounting scientific evidence that most whale stocks around the globe can support a limited commercial hunt for food.
"The world community has woken up to that fact and we are witnessing the last remaining years of an unjust moratorium."
- NZPA
