By Rob Taylor
A photo of an adult minke whale and her calf being towed up the rear ramp of a Japanese factory processing ship in Antarctic waters prompted headlines including: "They call it science."
"They're calling it science, but really it's killing whales," Garrett said.
Despite a moratorium on whaling, Japan is allowed an annual "scientific" hunt, arguing whaling is a cherished tradition and the hunt is necessary to study whales. Its fleet plans to hunt almost 1,000 minke and fin whales this Antarctic summer.
Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus said the images were "shocking" and added to legal weight against Japan's annual hunt as the Humane Society International urges Canberra to launch a case in the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea. But in Tokyo, Japan's Fisheries Agency accused Australia of trying to stir public outrage.
"EMOTIONAL PROPAGANDA"
"They are not a mother and her calf as claimed," director general Minoru Morimoto said in a statement.
In one photo a banner hangs from the back of the factory ship saying it is conducting "legal research under the ICRW (International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling)."
Another photo shows a whale tethered to harpoon lines at the bow of a whaling ship boarded by anti-whalers last month.
Anti-whaling activists left the Southern Ocean last week to refuel in Australia and the hardline Sea Shepherd protest group will return in a week to harass the six-ship Japanese fleet.
(Additional reporting by Teruaki Ueno in Tokyo; Editing by Katie Nguyen)
