Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith says Australia is formally protesting to Japan about its whaling, which he says is whale slaughter, not scientific activity. He says he has already made representations to the Japanese Government.

"The Australian Government will take all diplomatic measures to seek to persuade the Japanese Government to stop the whale slaughter," he said.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says this is nothing new as this is what has been done every year for the last 20 years.

"We need enforcement and we need action on this atrocity," said Captain Paul Watson, "we don't need anymore pictures of dying whales. Greenpeace has been taking pictures for years and it has not stopped the killing of the whales."

In November the Labor government of Kevin Rudd was elected partly ona promise to take a more aggressive position in opposing Japanese whaling. The government made their announcement today and according to Sea Shepherd it is the same old approach as before but this time dressed up in a different costume.

Australia is going to send the Customs vessel Oceanic Viking to monitor the Japanese for 20 days. And just so the Japanese do not get overly offended, they are going to remove their guns. Additionally, they are going to take pictures of the whales being killed.

"There is very little that is new here," said Captain Paul Watson from onboard the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin off the coast of Antarctica. "The Australian government is going to take some pictures of the Japanese whalers killing whales but will do nothing