Environmentalists howl as Japan sets out on another whaling season

The Japanese whaling fleet set out for their annual trip to the South Seas to kill hundreds of whales in the name of "research".  Everyone involved knows there is no research taking place whatsoever.  It is nothing more than a hunting mission where the whales are processed for eating.

Austrailian Environment Minister Peter Garrett urged Japan, which says the killings are for research purposes, to "swap harpoons for science" and study whales by other means.  "We are deeply disappointed that the Japanese Government has again embarked on its annual hunt to the Southern Ocean," Garrett said in a statement late on Thursday. "The Australian government has said repeatedly that we do not have to kill whales to study them."

Anti-whaling nations led by Australia and New Zealand and environmental groups including Greenpeace have long attacked the expeditions as cruel and unnecessary.  Anyone that has seen Whale Wars on Animal Planet has been able to see exactly what happens on these 'research' expeditions.  It is nothing more than an inhumane slaughter which should be stopped immediately.