Whaling vessel has left port

The Nisshin Maru, the main ship in Japan 's whaling fleet, has left Innoshima in western Japan for Antarctica under tight security. It is the ship's first hunt in the region since its return to port in April this year following a fire on the vessel.

The Australian Government has abandoned plans to send a ship to the Antarctic to shadow Japanese whale hunters this season, despite an election promise to increase pressure in a bid to end the slaughter. Instead it has launched its own scientific whaling study in the Southern Ocean to prove it was not necessary to kill the ocean mammals to study them. The move comes amid speculation that Tokyo will cut the number of whales it kills this season because of a collapse in demand for whale meat.

Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun have published an article stating that the whalers would reduce their take of minke whales to 750 and they would hold its quota of fin whales at 50. If the reports are true, it would be the first time since 1987 that Japan 's whaling target had been reduced but a spokesman for Japan 's Institute of Cetacean Research , which overseas the country's whaling program, said the reports are in fact wrong. The Institute of Cetacean Research have confirmed that there has been absolutely no change and 850 minke whales will be the target but a moratorium on catching humpback whales would stay in place.

Sea Shepherd will be the only group to challenge the Japanese at sea this year as Greenpeace are not sending any of their vessels to help stop the killings. Last year six ships took part in the hunt.