Japanese whalers recently set out for waters off the Australian Antarctic Territory - the third season since the Australian Rudd Government came to power hoping to end Southern Ocean whaling.

The factory ship Nisshin Maru and its catcher boats steamed out of Innoshima port in southern Honshu without the ceremony that marked many previous departures. The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research, which runs the fleet, confirmed that humpback whales would again be spared from the hunt, extending a postponement agreed in 2007.However, their cousins won't be spared and the number for this whaling season stands at 850 minke whales and 50 fin whales. The fleet begins whaling in mid-December and alternates each year between mainly Australian Antarctic waters and the Ross Sea but hopefully rewritten maritime safety and environmental laws could rule Nisshin Maru out of Antarctic operations within a few years.

Japan kills hundreds of whales a year in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary by using a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling that allows the sea mammals to be hunted for lethal "research." During their five-month hunt last season, the six Japanese ships caught 679 minke whales and one fin whale. A new Japanese centre-left government which took power mid-September has said it has no plans to change Japan's position on whaling.

Japan has killed 9,000 minke whales killed over the past 22 years.