Two whaling vessels left Friday from the port of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, to hunt whales for scientific research in the Northwestern Pacific through early August.
The Yushin Maru and Yushin Maru No. 2 will later join the mother ship, the Nisshin Maru, which left Habu port in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Wednesday. The whalers will try to harpoon about 260 minke and other types of whales and test their stomach contents and DNA.
Japan conducts the program, which opponents say is a front for commercial whaling, every year in two areas — the Northwestern Pacific and the Antarctic Sea. The latest trip is the 19th such hunt in the Northwestern Pacific since the program began in 1994.
Unlike the southern hunt, whaling opponents have not tried to obstruct past expeditions to the Northwestern Pacific.
