Australia sends plane to monitor Japanese whaling

one of many Japanese research ships which caught more then 100 whales in southern ocean for what it called research

 The Australian government says it will send a surveillance plane to the Southern Ocean to monitor Japanese whaling ships.

The government hopes the aircraft will help prevent any more conflict between the whalers and environmentalists. But a campaign group says officials should be sending ships to stop - not watch - the Japanese annual whale catch.
                                                                                         
The International Court of Justice is due to rule next year on an Australian claim that Japanese whaling is illegal.Japanese vessels are already on their way to the seas around the Antarctic for their annual hunt for whales, a period that will last between January and March 2014.