Whaling area doubles in size

Photo / Australian Customs Service

Japanese whalers have doubled the size of the area they will be hunting whales in the Southern Ocean this season, making it harder for anti-whaling activists to find them.

The change of tactics has been notified to the International Whaling Commission, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Japan's self-awarded scientific permit for 2010-11 gives the whaling fleet millions of square kilometres of ocean south of Australia and New Zealand to hunt down whales.