Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd has accused Prime Minister Julia Gillard of trying to demonise its work and says a costly mission to rescue three protesters on a Japanese ship is unnecessary.
Customs is sending a boat, Ocean Protector, to pick up Geoffrey Tuxworth, 47, Simon Peterffy, 44, and Glen Pendlebury, 27, who boarded the Shona Maru II off the coast of Bunbury on Saturday night.
Ms Gillard has said the mission is expected to cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But Sea Shepherd president Paul Watson says a vessel from his group is nearby and could easily pick the men up at little or no cost.
"All they have to do is transfer them over to our boat, we're only 15 miles from the Shona Maru II - a simple, low-cost solution," Mr Watson told the Seven Network.
"There's no need to be sending this Customs vessel.
"I think that the prime minister and attorney-general are just trying to demonise us."
Mr Watson said the federal government had not spoken to the Sea Shepherd organisation and had no idea why it had decided to send the Customs vessel.
The three men, part of the Forest Rescue organisation, had boarded the Shona Maru II as part of ongoing protests against Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.
Meanwhile, it was reported on Wednesday that Japanese whalers had entered Australian territorial waters, inside a 12-mile limit around sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.
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