Fishermen jostle 'Heroes' star in dolphin-hunt protest

'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.

The six activists from the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd paddled out on surfboards to a cove in the town of Taiji in south-western Japan on Tuesday to interfere with the annual hunt.

Video footage showed the cove stained red, apparently with the blood of the dolphins, though it did not capture the fishermen rounding up and knifing the mammals. About 14,000 dolphins are killed for food in Japan every year.

Fishermen on a boat approached the activists and ordered them to leave, shoving some of them with a long pole. An angry fisherman later shouted in the face of one of the protesters on the road above the cove. There did not appear to be any injuries.

“This baby stuck its head out and kind of looked as us, and the thought that the baby is no longer with us is very difficult,” Panettiere, who plays Claire Bennet in 'Heroes', said after coming ashore.

The local fishermen and their supporters say hunting dolphins – in this case, pilot whales – is a Japanese custom that outsiders have no business interfering with.

“Whales and dolphins are traditionally being used (as resources) in Japan,” said Hideki Moronuki, chief of the whaling section of the Japanese Fisheries Agency.

“In this light, we cannot accept an argument simply based on emotional causes.”

Coastal dolphin hunts usually involve herding groups of the animals into a cove using sonar equipment, or by banging metal rods in the water, creating a sort of acoustic barrier. The mammals are then trapped using nets and divers are sent in to kill them.