Japanese fleet begins humpback whale hunt

Australia and New Zealand called on Japan today to halt a whaling fleet heading for the Antarctic to hunt humpback whales.

The fleet departed from the southern Japan port of Shimonoseki last night with Japanese officials denying a claim by the environmental group Greenpeace that the fleet departed with its locators off to avoid detection.

The whalers plan to kill up to 50 humpback whales in what is believed to be the first large-scale hunt for the once nearly extinct species since a 1963 moratorium in the Southern Pacific put the giant marine mammals under international protection.

Greenpeace said today it has a protest ship, the Esperanza, searching for the fleet south of Japanese territorial waters and would shadow the ships to the South Pacific.