Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Monday suggested the government should send the Oceanic Viking patrol vessel to the southern ocean to monitor the clashes between Japanese whalers and anti-whaling protester.

"The Oceanic Viking ... as I understand it, is available to be deployed down into the Southern Ocean," Abbott told Macquarie Radio.

"That is its main job, as a kind of fisheries protection vessel. It should be deployed to this area, it should be there to try to ensure that Australia at least has a presence in this trouble spot and is able to work out exactly who is doing what," he said.

"You've got the Japanese saying that they're being harassed illegally by the protesters, you've got the protesters saying that the Japanese deliberately tried to sink a vessel.

"If the Oceanic Viking was there it might be able to keep the two groups at arm's length, but certainly if there is trouble at least there would be a third party down there to know what's happening."

The ship might also curtail Japan's whaling activities, Abbott noted.

"If the protesters are where the whales are and Australia via the Oceanic Viking is there to try to keep the sides apart, maybe it won't be such a great whaling season for the Japanese," he said.

It was not the coalition's policy to pursue Japan in the international courts, Abbott said.

"We don't like whaling, we would like the Japanese to stop," he added.