Australian federal Environment Minister Tony Burke said on Wednesday that Australia will not buy Japan's argument which its whaling in the Southern Ocean is for scientific reasons and will not protect for hunt.

Burke said whaling in the Southern Ocean is wrong and unlawful but there are no plans to send a Customs or Navy vessel.

Burke said Australia is taking legal action in the International Court of Justice to stop the whaling, adding that spending earthquake recovery money on whaling is not appropriate.

"Unfortunately as with all legal action it takes longer than you want it to," he told reporters in Canberra. "We've taken the toughest line of any country in the world by launching this legal action. We're throwing everything at it."

Japan's whaling fleet has set sail for the country's annual hunt in Antarctica, which it said was for scientific research, with security beefed up amid international protests. The Japan Fisheries Agency earlier said the trip's use of 28.7 million U.S. dollars from the earthquake recovery fund is legitimate, because one of the towns devastated by the March earthquake and tsunami was a whaling port.

Related

• Anti-whaling ships return to Australia
• Antarctic again to be whaling battleground
• Australia fights against Japanese whaling in int'l court
• New Zealand not to ban anti-whaling protestors
• Japan's whaling season halted by Sea Shepherd activists
• New Zealand to intervene in anti-whaling court case
• U.S. and other states oppose whaling in Southern Ocean

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