Personally it’s the obvious lying that angers me. The claims that its "scientific research", and the manipulation of the IWC is rather unpleasant. Likewise the claims that it is culturally significant are incorrect from what I understand, with there only being a history of extremely small scale coastal whaling. From what I've read a lot of the motivation for Japan to continue whaling is a resistance to the perceived racism of the anti-whaling movement, which of course may be true.
I would hope that no one would condone the hunting of non-Minke whales, ie. Right, Blue, Humpback, etc, and the opposition of hunting these endangered species is probably the catalyst for the more general anti-whaling public sentiment.
On an aviation note though... 404's and PA31s over the South Pacific! That'd be exciting. One of those flights where you look at the engine instruments are little more frequently than usual. Is that Brisbane Oceanic down there?