The Japanese whaling fleet left port in Innoshima on November 19 en route to Antarctica with over 1,000 whales in its sight, according to the Australian Marine Conservation Society.
It will take the whaling fleet about three weeks to reach the Southern Ocean beneath Australia.
The Japanese Government's annual "research" expedition to Antarctic waters plans to hunt up to 935 minke whales, 50 fin whales and 50 humpback whales. The hunting of humpback whales would break a four-decade ban on hunting the species.
"Japan's so-called scientific whaling is nothing less than commercial whaling in disguise. You don't need to kill whales to study them," said Darren Kindleysides, Director of the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS).
This is the fifth whaling season for the Japanese Government's "scientific whaling programme", known as "JARPA II", and the 22nd consecutive year Japan has hunted whales under the guise of scientific research. In that time, Japan's whalers have caught more than 9,000 whales in the Southern Ocean.