A Japanese whaling fleet set out for the Antarctic on Tuesday on its first hunt after the country doubled its target catch - a move condemned by anti-whaling nations.
The six-ship fleet set off from the port of Shimonoseki in western Japan aiming to catch about 850 Minke whales, almost double the previous annual target of 440, and to add 10 Fin whales to what Japan calls its scientific whaling programme, a spokeswoman for the Institute of Cetacean Research said.
Tokyo maintains that whale meat, though a rarity on menus now, is an important part of its culinary tradition. Anti-whaling nations and environmental groups condemn as cruel and unnecessary the practice of hunting the giant marine mammals, some of which are endangered.
Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an international moratorium and began what it calls its research programme the following year.
The meat ends up on store shelves and the tables of gourmet restaurants, prompting criticism from environmental groups.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) passed a non-binding resolution at a meeting in June that urged Japan to scrap research whaling altogether.
Japan had been pushing at the same meeting to re-establish commercial whaling, and it has threatened to withdraw from the IWC and form a new regulatory body with other whaling nations, such as Norway, the only country that permits commercial whaling.
Greenpeace dismissed the Japanese government's view that whales are contributing to the collapse in fish stocks.
"99% of the catch will be Southern Ocean Minke whales, which eat krill, not fish," John Frizell of Greenpeace International said in a news release.
Japan's whaling ships are due back in port in April.
