Japanese whaling ships left port on Thursday for Antarctic waters for their annual hunt of the ocean giants, Greenpeace said, setting the stage for high-seas confrontations with anti-whaling activists.
The factory ship Nisshin Maru and the smaller Yushin Maru 2 and 3 set sail from western Innoshima port while the Shonan Maru left eastern Shiogama harbour for their planned five-month voyage, said the environmental activist group.
Japan kills hundreds of whales a year in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary by using a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling that allows the sea mammals to be hunted for lethal "research".
Anti-whaling nations led by Australia and New Zealand and environmental groups including Greenpeace have long attacked Japan for its annual whaling expeditions, criticising them as cruel and unnecessary.
Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, makes no secret of the fact that whale meat ends up on its dinner tables.
Japan's fisheries agency declined to confirm the ships' departure, citing security reasons, and urged anti-whaling activists to refrain from violence.
"We don't say you shouldn't campaign against whaling, but there is a strict line between peaceful campaigns and violence," said Shigeki Takaya, a fisheries agency official in charge of whaling.
Militant activist group the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has harassed the whalers in recent years, moving their own ships and inflatable boats between the harpoon ships and the sea mammals.
Last year their ship the Steve Irwin collided with a whaling ship. Activists were also accused of hurling stink bombs and rancid butter at the whalers, who allegedly deployed ear-piercing sonic weapons against them.
During their five-month hunt last season, the six Japanese ships caught 679 minke whales and one fin whale - well below the fleet's planned haul of between 765 and 935 whales, Japan's fisheries agency said.
The captain of the Steve Irwin, Canadian Paul Watson, has vowed to "be their ongoing nightmare every year until they stop their horrific and unlawful slaughter of the great whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary".
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