Research Expedition Sets Out to Hunt Whales
As opponents protested from the pier, a fleet of five Japanese whaling vessels left the southern port of Shimonoseki on a six-month mission to hunt up to 400 minke whales in the Antarctic.
The hunt is permitted by the International Whaling Commission as part of a Japanese program of scientific research on whales. Opponents are demanding that Japan switch to nonlethal research methods.
The government, however, estimates that there are 760,000 minke whales in the Antarctic and says the whaling expedition poses no threat to the species.
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