Australia whale monitors set off to shadow Japanese

CANBERRA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - An Australian fisheries patrol ship left port on Wednesday to shadow Japan's whaling fleet near Antarctica and gather evidence for an international court challenge to halt the yearly slaughter.

The icebreaker Oceanic Viking, used for customs and fisheries policing, left a naval base near Perth in darkness to find and track the Japanese fleet in the Southern Ocean for up to 20 days, a spokesman for Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.

While the vessel has stowed arms below deck to avoid a confrontation, Australian customs officials on board will gather photographic and video evidence of the Japanese kill.

Japan's whaling fleet plans to hunt 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales for research over the Antarctic summer, but recently abandoned plans to hunt 50 humpback whales after international condemnation and a formal diplomatic protest by 31 nations.

Australia also plans to use patrols by a low-flying A319 Airbus jet used by Australian Antarctic scientists to follow and photograph the Japanese fleet.

Smith this week dismissed criticism that the icebreaker should have left sooner, saying the ship timed its surveillance "on the basis of maximising the potential of 20 days of successful activity".

The ship is expected to take at least a week to reach the whaling grounds and Australia's government is refusing to comment on its movements, sparking criticism from anti-whaling activists hoping to disrupt the fleet's operations.

Japan has long resisted pressure to stop scientific whaling, insisting whaling is a cherished cultural tradition. Its fleet has killed 7,000 Antarctic minkes over the last 20 years.

Smith said photographic evidence gathered by the ship and aircraft could be used before legal tribunals including the International Court of Justice in The Hague and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to stop Japan's hunt.

(Reporting by Rob Taylor, editing by Sanjeev Miglani)