Senator hands Abe anti-whaling letter

A Greens senator has used a state dinner to personally hand a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that warns against the resumption of whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Mr Abe has hinted Japan might resume scientific whaling in 2015.

Senator Peter Whish-Wilson hand-delivered the letter, from activist group Sea Shepherd, during an official dinner at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday night.

The letter warns that ships and volunteers from the group would resume their harassment of Japanese whaling ships.

"Our ocean is dying, Mr Prime Minister, and when the ocean dies we will follow," Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson told Mr Abe in the letter.

"We cannot live on this planet with a dead ocean."

Mr Watson insisted that Sea Shepherd was not anti-Japanese, respecting the country's culture and traditions.

Many of its citizens participated in save-the-whale campaigns, he said.

Mr Abe, who made an historic address to the Australian parliament on Tuesday, says Japan will abide by an International Court decision that ruled against its whaling activities.

However, it would still engage in research to collect the "indispensable scientific information in order to manage the whale resources".

Mr Abe said he did not believe the issue would impact adversely on the Japan-Australia bilateral relationship.

The Greens failed to win support for a motion in the Senate that called on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to raise concerns about the resumption of whaling with Mr Abe.

Mr Abbott says the two nations, despite their friendship, agree to disagree on whaling.