Japanese whaling fleet sets out

The whaling season has begun with a Japanese hunting vessel leaving port for the
Southern Ocean, Greenpeace claims.
The conservation group said the ship Nisshin Maru left the port of Innoshima on Monday.
Greenpeace activists unfurled a banner saying "whaling on trial" as the ship left port.
Japan has set itself a target of about 1,000 whales in the Southern Ocean.
Greenpeace International Whales coordinator Sara Holden said the ship left port
quietly, without the usual fanfare that accompanies the start of the season.
"Constant pressure on Japan's whaling industry by both Greenpeace and the
international community has reduced the fleet to sneaking out of port in a fog of
crisis and scandal, desperate to avoid attention," Ms Holden said.
Greenpeace will not send out a ship to trail the Japanese fleet, but rival
conservation group Sea Shepherd plans to.
The federal government sent out a ship last season but has not said if it will do so
this season.
The government has announced it will spend $6 million on non-lethal whale research
to show the Japanese that whales can be studied without having to be killed.
Japanese officials insisted there would be no changes to their hunting plans despite
international protests and slumping demand for whale meat at home, The Associated
Press reported.
Officials said no departure ceremony was planned for this year's expedition.
"We've decided not to hold a departure ceremony or announce the departure for safety
reasons," said Fisheries Agency official Toshinori Uoya.
Last year, he said, an environmental group tried to ambush the fleet just off the
coast and the whalers narrowly escaped.
Japan kills about 1,200 whales a year in two hunting expeditions under a scientific
program that Tokyo says provides crucial data on populations, feeding habits and
distribution of the mammals in the seas near Antarctica and the north Pacific Ocean.
Japan's research hunts are allowed by the International Whaling Commission, but
opponents call them a cover for commercial whaling, banned in 1986.
Last year, a Japanese whaling ship and a ship owned by the animal rights group Sea
Shepherd collided twice in Antarctic waters near a pod of whales.
The group's activists also dumped a foul-smelling acid on another whaling boat,
slightly injuring two crew members. Japanese police are conducting a criminal
investigation in the case.
Because of the disruption, the fleet last year returned with 551 minke whales, just
more than half of the planned catch.
Sea Shepherd has said that it also plans to try to disrupt Japan's 2008-09 whaling
season in the Antarctic.
Japanese have hunted whales for centuries, and whale meat was widely eaten in the
lean years after World War II.
However, it has plunged in popularity in today's prosperous Japan.
While still on the menu in a few upscale Tokyo restaurants, its consumption is
largely limited to small coastal communities.