Whaling observation ship won't help - McCully

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An observation ship in the Southern Ocean that would monitor the conflict between Japanese whalers and protesters won't stop people behaving badly there, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully says.

Australia's opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt says the Government should send a ship to capture evidence of whales being killed and provide an independent monitor to the events down south.

Mr Hunt's calls come as the conflict between whaling conservation group the Sea Shepherd and Japanese whalers intensified late on Wednesday. A whaling ship and a $A1.5 million protest vessel, the Ady Gil, collided, forcing the smaller protest vessel to be abandoned.

Despite the setback, the conservation group says it will keep hounding the whalers in an effort to stop them from killing more whales.

Because the Ady Gil is from New Zealand, the investigation into the incident will be carried out by Maritime NZ.

However an observation ship won't help, Mr McCully says.

"People are going to behave badly down there, there's not much we can do about it," he told ABC radio.

"Simply having somebody down there to observe involves incurring significant costs to taxpayers and as I say not much capacity to restrain those that are going to behave badly."

The best process was to see both parties understand that there was a significant risk to personal safety.

Mr McCully described Wednesday's collision as "almost the realisation of our worst nightmares".

"I say almost because no one lost their life thankfully."

The ships are located in a harsh environment that is far from immediate help, he said.

The option of international legal action against the whalers has always been an option that could be considered in the future, Mr McCully said.

- AAP