Japan's whaling ships leave for annual hunt in Antarctic

Dec 6, 2011, 9:05 GMT

Tokyo - Japan's whaling fleet left Tuesday for this year's hunt in the in the Southern Ocean despite opposition from home and abroad, local media reported.

Three ships including 720-ton Yushin Maru and 747-ton Daini Yushin Maru set sail from Shimonoseki in western Japan. The ships was expected to join the fleet's mother ship, the Nisshin Maru, later.

The fleet usually catches hundreds of whales including minke and fin whales during its four-month hunt.

The fleet, however, ended whaling last season in mid-February, earlier than usual, due to increased efforts by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-whaling group.

Japanese coast guards said Monday they would protect Japanese ships conducting so-called research whaling in response to obstruction of their recent activities by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

'We have decided to beef up security as never before,' a coast guard official was quoted by Kyodo News as saying.

But the official declined to provide details such as how many guards would board the vessels and what kind of equipment they would carry with them.

Japanese citizens groups and non-governmental organizations urged the government Friday to implement a fundamental review of whaling.

The groups criticized Tokyo for earmarking money in its budget for whaling, which is subject to a 1986 international moratorium and is opposed by many other countries.

Japan officially halted commercial whaling in 1987, but it has used a loophole in the moratorium to continue whaling under the premise of scientific research.