The federal government has repeated its promise to monitor Japanese whalers if they return to the Southern Ocean.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt says the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is expected to rule soon on Australia's case against Japanese whaling.
"We hope that the ICJ makes a positive decision shortly and that there is no attempt at whaling," a spokesman for the minister has told AAP.
"If however their fleet sets sail, our commitment to monitoring and observing remains undiminished. Beyond that we will obviously not pre-empt or discuss operational activities."
Earlier this week, former Greens leader Bob Brown, who is now chairman of the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Australia, called on the Abbott government to keep its promise to send a customs vessel to monitor any hunt.
He said he was worried the government would walk away from its pre-election commitment.
In mid-October, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop appeared to flag a shift in the coalition's position when she said Australia would make a judgment on whether to send a customs vessel when the whaling season arrived.
Dr Brown says Sea Shepherd activists remain determined to disrupt any hunt by the Japanese.
"We'll be getting in the way of the harpoons," he told AAP.
Japan's fleet is yet to depart for the annual hunt, which it says is legal under a scientific provision of the international whaling convention.
Sea Shepherd activists and Japanese whalers have been involved in dangerous collisions in past whaling seasons. Sea Shepherd lost its vessel, the Ady Gil, after a collision in 2010.
