AUSTRALIA has told the United Nation's top court that Japan is unlawfully trying to cloak a commercial whaling operation "in the lab coat of science".
Canberra's lead counsel has told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Australia is totally opposed to any form of commercial whaling "whether it be carried out under the guise of science or not".
"Japan seeks to cloak its ongoing commercial whaling in the lab coat of science," Bill Campbell QC said at the opening of a three-week hearing in The Hague.
"(But) this case is about Japan's failure to abide by its clear obligations under the 1946 (whaling) convention not to conduct any form of commercial whaling and its unlawful misuse of the scientific exception ... as a means of perpetuating its commercial whaling activities."
Mr Campbell said few countries, least of all Japan, believed its scientific program was truly about science because it involved killing hundreds of whales each year.
He said if all countries party to the 1946 convention killed as many whales as Japan wanted to each year more than 83,000 minke whales would be harpooned annually in the Southern Ocean.
That would be "catastrophic" for the whale population and was clearly at odds with the purpose of the convention, Mr Campbell said.
Japan's argument that it should be allowed to conduct so-called scientific whaling despite a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling was therefore "dangerous and untenable".
Canberra is hoping the court will issue a ruling banning Japanese whaling by the end of the year - soon enough to halt the next whaling season.
Mr Campbell said the dispute between Canberra and Tokyo had ended up in court because it had proven "intractable" over many years.
A resolution by the ICJ would enhance the otherwise excellent relationship between the two countries, Mr Campbell said.
Australia's solicitor-general, Justin Gleeson SC, told the 16-judge ICJ panel that the size and repetition of Japan's JARPA II research hunt each year revealed "its true purpose and effect is commerce".
"JARPA II fails to exhibit those essential characteristics that would be required for it to be science," the solicitor-general said on Wednesday.
Mr Gleeson said whale meat was still being supplied to the market in a business-like operation just as it was prior to the 1986 ban.
When it came to genuine science "killing the subject you are studying in order to learn more about it ... should be a matter of last resort not the first or default option", he said, adding Japan hadn't acted in good faith and had abused its rights.
In a rare move the court will hear from experts - not just government representatives and lawyers - during the three-week hearing.
Australia's experts will address the panel on Thursday while Japan's are likely to appear next week after its opening submissions on Tuesday.
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