Why is Rudd government mute on whaling?

Japan's Antarctic whale catch falls short of target: Japan's criminal whaling fleet massacred ("caught") 680 whales including 679 minke and just one fin whale (listed as vulnerable under the EPBC Act 1999)! Just how many whales do they need to do their "research"? Surely the 678th minke whale killed varied very little from the 679th, maybe only in age and sex! Real science would require observations of living animals, and perhaps some biopsies and scats for DNA samples. This bogus guise for killing is utterly shameful, illegal and unnecessary. Thanks to the "interference" of the lonely law-enforcers from Sea Shepherd, many of the giant animals' lives were saved! Our Government has had numerous laws to throw at Japan's "fisheries" department to stop this slaughter. Diplomatic protest are obviously impotent as Japan cares little about our opinions or anti-whaling policies. Science is becoming corrupted by greed for wildlife "harvests", or to justify "culls" when animals are seen to be in conflict with commercial interests. Our own record of wildlife conservation is so appalling that any protests from Australia to Japan regarding whaling would be dismissed as hypocritical and insincere! Japan has been given immunity from prosecution, and time to continue their bogus "science", thanks to our Federal's Governments shallow commitments to anti-whaling.