The next battle in the whale wars will begin in early December when two or possibly three vessels from the Sea Shepherd organisation will set sail from WA bound for Antarctic waters.

Last year, Sea Shepherd had only one boat, the Steve Irwin, in the Antarctic and the bigger fleet signals a major escalation in the fight to stop Japanese ship from whaling in southern waters.

The second ship will be the Oceanrace, a space-age New Zealand 24m tri-hull powerboat that is not only able to cut through waves and runs on biodiesel but it is fast enough to intercept the whale catchers as they work.

"What we've been able to do with the Steve Irwin is block the operations of the (factory ship) Nisshin Maru but we cannot catch those harpoon boats," Sea Shepherd head Paul Watson said. "They do 22 knots but the Earthrace does 50 knots. We'll be able to run circles around them. The Earthrace will be an interceptor vessel with the object being to prevent them from killing whales.

"We've been able to cut the whalers' quotas every year, and they haven't made a profit for three years. Our objective is to sink them economically and I think we can do that if we keep the pressure on."

Capt. Watson said the group would know soon whether they would have a third ship on the campaign. A donor had come forward with the money but a suitable ship still had to be found.

On board the Steve Irwin when it leaves in December will be a camera crew from Animal Planet. It will be the third time that the channel has recorded the actions of Sea Shepherd. The first series, made in summer last year, will be shown on Animal Planet in Australia from tomorrow.

It is called Whale Wars and records what Capt. Watson says is the moment when he was shot by someone in the Japanese fleet. The bullet was largely spent but made a hole in his jacket.

This summer, there was no shooting but there were several potentially dangerous incidents and the Steve Irwin collided with a harpoon boat.

The Steve Irwin has been in Queensland having a $500,000 refit and this year will go into battle equipped with a water cannon.

WA will be at the heart of the action next summer because the Japanese whaling fleet is expected to be in the part of the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary closest to here.

Capt. Watson hopes to sail with the Steve Irwin but he is now officially a terrorist.

"About three weeks ago, I was coming back from Canada into the US and Homeland Security held me for two hours," he said. "They were all very friendly. In fact, they've all seen Whale Wars, and they're all very supportive. I said, 'What's this all about?' They said, 'Well, Japan's put in an official accusation that you're a terrorist. It doesn't mean a hell of a lot, we just have to go through the damn paperwork'."

While the US actions are a nuisance, Watson is concerned that the Australian Government will try to stop him from entering the country because of the Japanese accusation.

"We enjoy overwhelming public support in Australia, but the Australian Government is not very friendly. The former one was OK. I mean, (former environment minister) Ian Campbell is on our advisory board, but (Environment Minister) Peter Garrett pretty much stabbed us in the back.

"I think once you get elected, they take you into a back room and explain reality to you because he actually stood up and said a Rudd government would stop whaling.

"Two years later he may as well have been talking to himself."