Japan ends season's Antarctic whale hunt

Japan has ended this season's whale hunt in the Antarctic Ocean having caught less than a third of its original target, the Fisheries Agency said Friday. Japanese whalers killed 266 minke whales and one fin whale, the agency said, well below the approximately 900 they had been aiming for when they left Japan in December. The whalers had left the southern waters by Thursday "as scheduled", the agency said. It made no reference to the frequent high-seas confrontations with anti-whaling activists. Militant environmentalist group Sea Shepherd had pursued the Japanese fleet for much of the season. The group has hurled stink bombs at the boats and used ropes to try to tangle their propellers in a series of exchanges, which have seen the whalers retaliate with water cannon.