Japanese whalers have been fined $1 million by the Federal Court of Australia for killing Antarctic minke whales in the Australian whale sanctuary in clear breach of the law and a court injunction.

Justice Margaret Jagot on Wednesday found that whaling company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha had killed numerous whales over the course of four separate whaling campaigns between December 2008 and March 2014 in the Australian Whale Sanctuary, ignoring court orders forbidding it from doing so.

A minke whale is dragged along by Japanese whaling harpoon ship the Yushin Maru 2. Credit:Glenn Lockitch/Sea Shepherd

Justice Jagot said this represented a "deliberate, systematic and sustained" breach of an injunction on whaling imposed by the court in 2008 in accordance with the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

She found the whaler guilty of contempt of court over the breaches and ordered it to pay four separate fines of $250,000 which she said reflected the "serious nature of the breaches", and the need to "denounce Kyodo's conduct".