Japan intends to send its whaling fleet back to the Antarctic this year, a senior official has told BBC News.

日本一位高级官员向BBC透露，日本今年计划继续向南极洲派遣捕鲸舰队。

There has been speculation¹ that campaigns by activists², money problems and new rules at sea might persuade Tokyo to stop Antarctic whaling.

But at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting, Japan's Joji Morishita said the plan was to return.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which forced the last hunt's early closure, says it will be back too.

Finding a way to deal with the organisation³'s vessels⁴ is the main obstacle Japan sees to continuing for the next season and beyond.

"We are now discussing how we can send our fleet back to the Antarctic Ocean," said Mr Morishita, Japan's deputy commissioner⁵ to the IWC and a senior official in the Fisheries Agency.

"Simply put, the attack from Sea Shepherd organisation is the one we have to consider how we prevent that to happen again."

During the IWC meeting, being held in Jersey⁶, Japanese delegates（代表） showed pictures and videos that, they said, showed the campaigners attacking whaling vessels with projectiles⁷（自动推进武器） including flares⁸, which set netting alight, and glass bottles filled with foul-smelling butyric acid（丁酸） .

They also showed Sea Shepherd boats ramming⁹ the whalers, and said reinforced ropes had been put in the water to entangle¹⁰（纠缠，卷入） propellers¹¹.

"The attack this past year became so severe that we didn't have any choice to try to prevent the worst from happening," said Mr Morishita.

Each successive year, Sea Shepherd has sent bigger fleets and faster vessels, while Japan has downscaled its forces; last season, for the first time, the activists had the upper hand.

Rather than catching¹² 850-odd whales - the official target - the eventual¹³ haul was about 170.

It is not clear how Japan intends to protect its fleet in any future expedition - it was not just a matter of sending military patrols, Mr Morishita said, as that was a legal minefield（布雷区） .