The Ocean Viking, a surveillance vessel, was sent by Australia to spy on Japan’s whaling fleet in the southern ocean in order to gather evidence for legal action against it.

The icebreaker left from Perth yesterday and for 20 days will track the Japanese fleet, the Guardian Unlimited reports.

The Oceanic Viking is armed and usually used for tracking poachers.

This move comes as Britain and other countries that are against whaling entered a campaign forcing Japan to end its annual “scientific” hunt.

Japan agreed last month to drop the hunt of 50 humpback whales after 30 countries and the EU issued a protest, but it went on with its plan of killing the other 1,000 whales.

The icebreaker will need almost a week to reach the Japanese whaling fleet.

In order to avoid conflicts with the Japanese, the machine guns which were on the deck of the vessel were stowed below.

The surveillance vessel won’t give away the location of the Japanese fleet to vessels of Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd that weren’t able to track it in the Arctic waters.

The officials on board will gather photographs and videos of the Japan hunt which will be presented the International Court of Justice in The Hague or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

A319 Airbus commercial jets will also monitor the fleet, according to the Telegraph.co.uk. They will depart tomorrow.

Britain's fisheries minister, Jonathan Shaw, said last night that he hopes that in the near future he will meet with the Japanese officials in order to present the government’s opposition towards lethal research.

He said: "We are considering a high-level diplomatic protest to the Japanese government, following consultation with like-minded anti-whaling countries."

Since the banning of whaling in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission, 7,000 minke whales have been killed by Japan.

For this year Japanese fleet has a target of 935 minke and 50 endangered fin whales.