A ship carrying militant anti-whaling activists is heading back to Antarctic waters to resume its chase of a Japanese whaling fleet.

The ship, the Steve Irwin, spent 12 days in Melbourne, Australia to refuel and take on supplies after weeks of pursuing the Japanese whaler in the Southern Ocean.

Captain Paul Watson says local residents have donated money for fuel and other supplies. The Steve Irwin intends to harass and intervene against the whalers to prevent them hunting until the end of the season.

In January, we were able to stop them from killing whales for three weeks. So, our objective this time is to try and stop them for three or four more weeks. That's going to make a substantial impact on their overall quota. We cost them about two and a half million dollars in fuel in January. We want to make this costly, and we want to expose what they're doing.

The 32 crew members on board the Steve Irwin include 15 Australians, and volunteers from other countries including New Zealand, Canada, the United States, and South Africa.