Researchers to challenge Japan's whaling programme

Researchers from 12 countries will conduct research on whales in Antarctica in an open challenge to Japan's programme that kills up to 1,000 whales a year in the name of science.

The research will use nonlethal techniques to study whale ecology.

Australian Conservation Minister Peter Garrett said the Southern Ocean Research Partnership seeks to reform the management of science within the International Whaling Commission and end scientific whaling.

Japan currently has a six-boat whaling fleet in Antarctic waters as part of its so-called scientific whaling programme, allowed by the Commission despite a 1986 ban on commercial whaling. Opponents claim it's commercial whaling in disguise, with the whale meat sold for food in Japan.