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Federal Minister for Home Affairs Bob Debus has described images of Japanese whaling, captured by Australian customs officials, as horrific.

Australian customs ship the Oceanic Viking arrived in the Western Australian port of Fremantle after seven weeks at sea, collecting video and photographic evidence of Japanese whaling activities.

Mr Debus says the the footage taken in the Southern Ocean shows the bodies of small whales being dragged onto the Japanese ship and a Japanese crew member shooting a whale with a rifle.

"These are really quite horrifying images," he said.

"There's a lot of blood and it's obvious the animals are in a lot of pain and its clear that the overwhelming majority of the Australian people don't like it."

Mr Debus says Japan is an important ally and trading partner, but the images he has seen are extremely disturbing and may warrant action.

"I do feel physically repulsed by it. I'm aware of the whaling activity that's gone on over the years along the coast of Australia, apart from anywhere else," he said.

"But long ago now we banned whaling because we believed it to be unnecessary in any commercial sense."

Source - ABCNews