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Greenpeace chases away Japan’s whalers

Greenpeace said on Sunday that it had chased Japanese whalers out of hunting grounds in the Southern Ocean, disrupting the planned slaughter of almost 1,000 whales.

The Greenpeace vessel, the Esperanza, chased the main Japanese ship, the Nisshin Maru, through hundreds of miles of thick fog after spotting the whaling fleet on Saturday. The fleet’s catcher ships fled in another direction and will be unable t o hunt as long as they are separated from the Nisshin Maru, which processes and stores captured whales. “Now that they are out of the hunting grounds, they should stay out,” said Greenpeace campaigner Sakyo Noda.

Japan warned the protesters not to interfere with the whalers as they attempt to reach this year’s quota of 935 minke and 50 endangered humpback whales. The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 but allows Japan to conduct hunts in the name of scientific research.

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