Japan's whaling fleet sets out for Antarctic-Greenpeace

By Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO (Reuters) - The main ship in Japan's whaling fleet set out for the Antarctic on Monday for its first hunt in the region since limping home with just over half its planned catch in April following clashes with militant anti-whaling activists, environmentalist group Greenpeace said.

The Nisshin Maru set out from Innoshima in western Japan, Greenpeace said, part of a plan to take about 850 minke whales and 50 fin whales. Last year six ships took part in the hunt.

The vessel's movements will be followed by a ship belonging to Sea Shepherd, an anti-whaling group that skirmished repeatedly with the fleet at sea last year in an attempt to halt the hunt.

Earlier on Monday, Australia urged Japan to abandon its yearly hunt, launching its own scientific whaling study in the Southern Ocean to prove it was not necessary to kill the ocean mammals to study them.

"Modern-day research uses genetic and molecular techniques as well as satellite tags, acoustic methods and aerial surveys rather than grenade-tipped harpoons," Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett told reporters in Canberra.

"Australia does not believe that we need to kill whales to understand them," Garrett said.

A Japanese Fisheries Agency official last week denied a newspaper report that Tokyo would cut by 20 percent the number of whales it planned to hunt due to anti-whaling protests.

But the official said that a moratorium on catching humpback whales would stay in place.