Japan has resumed its annual whale hunt off Antarctica now that anti-whaling activists have stopped pursuing the country’s fleet, a Japanese official said today.

Two anti-whaling activists were still on board a Japanese ship today as protesters continued to shadow its hunting fleet.

'Heroes' TV star Hayden Panettiere and fellow animal rights activists drew angry shouts and some shoving from fishermen in Japan when they tried to interfere with a dolphin hunt, video footage shot by the protesters showed.

International fisheries officials have agreed on unprecedented action to reverse the decline in global tuna stocks, including a plan to track each fish from the ocean to the market, a news report in Japan said today.

New Zealand said today that it had joined 16 other nations in demanding that Japan halt its whale killing in the oceans near Antarctica.