Australia is considering its next move to try to halt Japan's new Antarctic whaling "research", following the Asian power's rejection of an international clampdown on the hunt.
On Thursday night, New Zealand and Australia won a vote at the International Whaling Commission that provided tougher guidelines for scientific scrutiny over lethal research permits to kill whales.
But despite an International Court of Justice decision that its last whaling program was illegal, Japan voted against the non-binding New Zealand resolution and reconfirmed it planned to go its own way.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the resolution clearly brought the court's advice on what could constitute a legal research program into the processes of the IWC.
"We are considering the outcome of the meeting," Mr Hunt told Fairfax on Friday. "But let me be clear, we would not do anything in any way that would endorse or encourage lethal whale research."
The Japanese government indicated before this week's meeting in Portoroz, Slovenia, that it would limit its new kill to minke whales, and promised to undergo a "highly transparent" review process before it finalised the plan.
Japan's IWC commissioner Joji Morishita told the meeting talks on reaching a consensus over the New Zealand resolution came up "a little bit short" and Japan found it was restricting beyond current laws.
"We will be submitting a new research plan in Antarctic Ocean so that we can start from 2015," he said.
"All these activities, as we have been arguing, [are] perfectly in line with international law, a scientific basis, as well as ICJ judgment language."
IWC observer and anti-whaling advocate Paul Spong said it was now up to the commission's scientific committee to put in place a system for authorising permits for research whaling that reached a bar set by the court.
"If Japan fails to come up with a plan that satisfies the ICJ decision, it will lose the Antarctic big time," Mr Spong said. "It's really quite a gamble."
Several South American nations said they strongly believed the New Zealand resolution had the effect of further legitimising scientific whaling, and abstained from the vote.
The South Americans' attempt to establish a South Atlantic whale sanctuary failed to reach a three-quarters majority, with a 40-18 vote. Japan's perennial bid for an IWC law change to obtain its own special coastal minke whale quota also was lost, 19-39.
Mr Morishita reconfirmed Japan's goal of resuming commercial whaling, nominating minkes in the Antarctic, North Pacific and North Atlantic as already proven sustainable by IWC methods.
He emerged a personal winner when he was elected vice-chairman of the IWC. Under normal practice he would take over in 2018 from the new chairman, Switzerland's Bruno Mainini.
