Japan resumes annual whale hunt without activists on fleet's tail

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan has resumed its annual whale hunt in waters near Antarctica now that anti-whaling activists have stopped pursuing the country's fleet, a Japanese official said Wednesday.

Japan temporarily halted its hunt in mid-January after confrontations with both Greenpeace and the militant anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, Japanese Fisheries Agency official Jiro Hyuga said.

Late last month, the vessels each group had sent to pursue the whalers returned to port to refuel. The Japanese fleet decided to resume whaling after the threat of any interference faded, Hyuga said.

Tokyo still plans to take about 900 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales this season despite the interruption, said Hideki Moronuki, chief of the Agency's whaling section.

Paul Watson, captain of Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin, has said he and his crew are "anxious" to return to the chase, and hope to complete refueling and resupplying in Melbourne, Australia, by next Tuesday.

Greenpeace has no plans to dispatch its vessel, the Esperanza, again this season, said Greenpeace Japan spokeswoman Kyoko Murakami. The group claims to have saved more than 100 whales during the two weeks it chased the Japanese fleet.

Japan has staunchly defended its annual killing of more than 1,000 whales, conducted under a clause in International Whaling Commission rules that allows whales to be killed for scientific purposes.

Critics dismiss the Japanese program as a disguise for commercial whaling, which has been banned by the IWC since 1986.

Japan also has a North Pacific mission that kills about 100 minke whales a year.