Australia's Environment Minister Ian Campbell told national radio he was strongly opposed to whaling and the Japanese fleet operating in the Southern Ocean would not be allowed to enter Australian ports.

"They can only do that with my permission and I will not grant permission to Japanese whaling vessels or support vessels to use Australian ports," he said. "They are banned from Australian ports as long as I'm the minister."

Campbell also urged the Japanese whalers to shun the use of water cannons against protesters, saying confrontations during previous hunts had put lives at risk.

"In the deep Southern Ocean, shooting a powerful water cannon at a human being puts them at risk of falling into the ocean," he said.

"Death through either propeller strike, hypothermia or being struck by a ship is a very high risk."

The water cannon were used last year against Greenpeace protesters who deployed small rubber boats to put themselves between the harpoons and the whales.

Greenpeace will again harass the Japanese fleet with its fastest ship, the 72-metre Esperanza, due to leave New Zealand for the Southern Ocean on January 25.

The more militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has already sent two ships to the hunting grounds, one of which is fitted with a ram which could slice into the hull of a whaler.

Sea Shepherd president Paul Watson told AFP from the ship, the 54-metre Farley Mowat, that he would do all he could to prevent the Japanese killing whales, including ramming their ships.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.

Critics reject Japan's claim that it kills whales for research, and it is no secret that the meat from the hunt winds up on dinner plates.

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