KEY POINTS:
The Green Party wants the Government to send navy frigates into the Southern Ocean in case there are clashes between Japanese whalers and protest ships.
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza is reported to be looking for the whalers and has said it expects to find them within days.
A
second protest ship, the Sea Shepherd, is on its way to the hunting area.
Green MP Metiria Turei said today frigates were needed as protest ships and a safety measure in case there were dangerous incidents.
"The fact is that there is a very high potential for things to go wrong in an extremely hostile natural environment, where human emotions are running high," she said.
The National Party yesterday urged the Government to send an air force Orion to help monitor the whalers.
Ms Turei said all it would be able to do was collect information.
Last year, in an incident unrelated to protests, the Japanese factory ship Nissan Maru caught fire and one of its crew died.
"Our navy was the first off the mark in the rescue effort then, just as they will be if anything happens this year," Ms Turei said.
"The Japanese whaling fleet is already reportedly halfway through their aim of slaughtering 1000 whales and the Australian government's boat is yet to leave harbour.
"This makes it more pressing than ever that New Zealand sends a representative ship to make clear our country's abhorrence of this senseless crime."
The new Australian government promised a strong reaction when Japan said it planned to kill 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales in antarctic waters this year, but it is facing criticism because the operation has not yet started.
Its monitoring ship was yesterday reported to be still in port, and Ms Turei said today it had not left.
Conservation Minister Steve Chadwick said many people wanted tougher action to halt whaling but the Government believed diplomatic protest was the strongest position for New Zealand.
"Our position is keep at the table and keep Japan at the table," she said.
Japan's whaling fleet was operating in the Australian-controlled area of the Southern Ocean and that was why Australia was leading diplomatic efforts this year to end the whale kill.
New Zealand was "working closely" to support that effort.
- NZPA