Whalings can be stopped "within weeks": Australian Greens

CANBERRA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Australian Greens party have backed international law experts who argue that the Rudd government could stop whaling in the Southern Ocean "within weeks" by launching international legal action.

The damaged powerboat Ady Gil, which belongs to the Sea Shepherd  Conservation Society, floats after a collision with the Japanese  ship Shonan Maru No. 2 in the Southern Ocean January 6, 2010.   (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Greens leader Bob Brown said federal Labor "should get off its backside and take action".

"The government should be seeking such an injunction in the court," Senator Brown told reporters on Friday.

Australian National University law expert Don Rothwell believes Australia could successfully win an injunction in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea "within three to four weeks".

Canberra could argue Japan's so-called scientific whaling program was actually commercial whaling in disguise, Prof. Rothwell told ABC TV on Friday.

"All commercial whaling is currently prohibited under the whaling convention." Rothwell said.

"The number of whales that Japan takes is far in excess of what in any way could be legitimate scientific whaling," he added.