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AAPWe're doing lots of anti-whaling talking - MPs
By Denis Peters
January 04, 2008 04:18pm
THE Federal Government has defended its stance on tackling whaling in the Antarctic after revelations its surveillance ship has not yet left Australia while the Japanese whale hunt is well advanced.
Japan plans to take 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales for research purposes this summer season despite strident international criticism.
A spokesman for the Japanese whalers has told AAP the research program, known as JARPA II, is "midway through".
But the Australian Customs ship Oceanic Viking, which Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said on December 19 would leave Australia within days to monitor the fleet, has not yet left Fremantle.
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