A Japanese whaling ship left crippled by fire could turn into an environmental disaster as the vessel drifts near one of the world's largest penguin breeding grounds on the Antarctic coast, officials warned Thursday.

New Zealand Conservation Minister Chris Carter, whose country is leading efforts to help the stricken ship, said it was carrying nearly 500,000 litres of heavy oil and nearly 800,000 litres of furnace oil and was starting to list from water pumped aboard to fight the fire.

The Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru is shown in this undated photo. A fire on board crippled the ship near the coast of Antarctica.
(The Institute of Cetacean Research/ Associated Press)

"It is a serious situation … a ship badly damaged and full of toxic oil," Carter told National Radio.

No oil had spilled from the ship and it was in no immediate danger of sinking, officials said.

Japanese officials said the blaze that broke out in the below-decks area of the ship where whale carcasses are processed was under control.

Most of the 148-member crew of the 7,260-tonne Nisshin Maru were taken Thursday to three other ships from the Japanese whaling fleet in the area, said Hideki Moronuki, an official with the Japan Fisheries Agency. One crew member is missing.

The Nisshin Maru sent out a distress call early Thursday after the fire broke out, said Steve Corbett, a spokesman for Maritime New Zealand.

Senior crew closed hatches to seal off the burning area  to prevent the fire from spreading, Moronuki said.

By Thursday night, efforts to put out the fire were halted by thick smoke, Corbett said. He had earlier said that officials were confident the fire wouldn't spread and that the ship wouldn't sink.

Carter said the safety of the Nisshin Maru's crew was the top priority, but noted the ship was only 180 kilometres from the Antarctic's Cape Adare, one of the world's largest penguin breeding rookeries with about 250,000 breeding pairs, Antarctica New Zealand chief executive Lou Sanson said.

"It's a long way off the coast but the currents do go that way. We're very concerned about what could happen," Sanson told the Associated Press.

He said the ship was far from help and in a "high energy environment where you get a lot of storms." Conditions stayed calm Thursday.

The Nisshin Maru was one of at least two Japanese whaling ships that have been harassed recently by activists from the Canadian-founded conservation group Sea Shepherd, who have thrown foul-smelling acid and other objects at the ships to try to keep them from hunting whales.