AUSTRALIA has stepped up its opposition to Japanese whalers by flying its first Antarctic surveillance mission by Airbus.

The plane - fitted with spying and imaging equipment - flew a six-hour low level search mission yesterday.

It located two foreign fishing vessels in Antarctic seas, a spokeswoman for the Australian Home Affairs Minister, Bob Debus, said.

Missions will be used to gather evidence for potential international legal action against the whaling.


The aircraft performed well on a six-hour low-level search out of Hobart on Sunday, locating two foreign fishing vessels in Antarctic seas, a spokeswoman for the Home Affairs Minister, Bob Debus, said yesterday.


The flight came as Militant environmentalists who shadowed Japan's whaling in the Antarctic said they were set to return to shore as they were running out of fuel.


The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's announcement came two days after the more mainstream environmental movement Greenpeace also said it was ending its pursuit of Japan's controversial annual whaling expedition.


Sea Shepherd said its ship, named after late Australian environmentalist Steve Irwin, would head back to Melbourne "within a few days."


"Our objective now is to keep the hunt from resuming before the end of January. Unfortunately our fuel reserves will not allow us to stay longer than that," Sea Shepherd's founder, Paul Watson, said in a statement.


Japan halted its hunt after clashes in mid-January with activists on the Steve Irwin who hurled stink bombs at the whaling fleet.


Two Sea Shepherd activists, Brit Giles Lane and Australian Ben Potts, jumped onto a harpoon vessel last week, setting off a two-day standoff that was resolved after Australia picked up the pair and handed them back to the Steve Irwin.


Japan, defying most Western nations, kills some 1,000 whales a year using a loophole in a 1986 global whaling moratorium that allows "lethal research" on the giant mammals.


Japan makes no secret that the meat ends up on dinner plates and accuses Western countries of disrespecting its culture. Only Norway and Iceland defy the moratorium on commercial whaling outright.