The Japanese temporarily suspended whaling this week as they tried to shake off two Greenpeace ships in the icy Southern Ocean but abandoned the cat-and-mouse game to resume harpooning Saturday, campaign leader Shane Rattenbury told AFP by satellite phone from onboard the Arctic Sunrise.

"The whaling fleet has resumed limited whaling in rough seas," Rattenbury said. "We've observed five whales being killed."

"We haven't been able to launch inflatable boats to get between the harpoons and the whales because conditions out there are just too dangerous for small vessels -- it's very frustrating for us for this to be happening."

Rattenbury said the inflatables would be launched as soon as the weather eased.

"There's every chance we will spend Christmas Day doing just that," he said.

Earlier this week, Greenpeace said the largest of the Japanese whalers turned fire hoses on the inflatables.

There was also a minor collision between a Japanese vessel trying to unload a dead whale and a Greenpeace boat blocking access to the factory ship, leading Japan to denounce the group's tactics as akin to "piracy".

The Greenpeace boats, the Esperanza and the Arctic Sunrise, with a total of 57 crew on board, intend to continue harassing the Japanese fleet for several weeks, Rattenbury said.

One of the Japanese whalers, the Keiku Maru, avoided a confrontation with protesters in the Tasmanian capital Hobart when it airlifted a sick crewmember from ship to shore late Friday, rather than dock and face waiting demonstrators.

The crewman was taken to hospital suffering appendicitis, while about 100 environmentalists turned out in Hobart Saturday to criticise the Australian government for failing to impound the Keiku Maru.

"The Australian government should have made sure that ship was escorted into Hobart and put out of action instead of going back to kill our whales," Greens Senator Bob Brown told the group.

Brown ridiculed Japan's assertion that its whaling program was carried out on a scientific basis.

"What is it after 20 years that they've discovered? That whales go well with soy sauce?" he said.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986 but Japan says its whale hunts are carried out for scientific research.

Critics, such as the Australian government, say the program is a cover for commercial killing of whales for consumption in Japan, where whalemeat is popular.

Despite international protests, Japan has this year more than doubled its planned catch of minke whales to 935 and added 10 endangered fin whales, with plans to eventually lift the number to 50, along with 50 rare humpback whales.

Australia has declared a whale sanctuary in a large swathe of the Southern Ocean that it considers to be its Antarctic territory but the refuge is not recognised by Japan.

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