Mission: To kill 400 whales Citics say Japan's "scientific research' programme is simply a cover to supply the country's restaurants with pricey whale meat SHIMONOSEKI (Japan) -- In the name of ""scientific research'', a fleet of five Japanese whaling vessels set sail yesterday for the Antarctic Ocean to kill around 400 whales, the government said. ""The purpose is scientific research,'' Fisheries Agency official Hideki Tanakura said. Whales caught during the voyage will be sold throughout the country ""to procure funds necessary for the research'', the official added. The ships' operator, the Institute of Cetacean Research, is subsidised by the agency. The ships will return to Japan around April, the official said. It is the 14th such annual research mission since Japan recommenced whaling in 1987. The vessels aim to catch between 390 and 410 minke whales in the Antarctic Ocean, the official said. ""They will research how many whales are born and die annually, where various groups live, their age, maturity, as well as the pattern of their activity...to collect the necessary data for managing minke whale resources,'' Mr Tanakura said. ""We want everyone to understand that the research we are doing is necessary,'' Shimonoseki Mayor Kiyoshi Ejima told the crew and dozens of officials and spectators at the farewell ceremony. The hunt comes as US President Bill Clinton is deciding whether to recommend sanctions against Japan over the expansion of its hunt in the North Pacific from minke whales to include Bryde's and sperm whales, both protected under US law. During a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Brunei on Thursday, Mr Clinton called on Japan to stop its whaling programme, officials said. Tokyo argues that it conducts valuable research on sea resources through its whale catch, and denies that the hunting endangers any species. Critics say the programme is simply a cover to supply Japanese restaurants with pricey whale meat. Environmental campaign group Greenpeace condemned the departure of the fleet for the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary as ""deliberately provocative'', coming as it does less than two months after its return from a controversial whale-hunt in the North Pacific. ""Japan claims that the "research' is conducted for the International Whaling Commission, however the International Whaling Commission's scientists have unanimously agreed that they don't need the information produced,'' he said. The Southern Ocean sanctuary, in the waters around Antarctica, was set up by the International Whaling Commission in 1994, with 23 member countries voting to support it and only Japan voting to oppose it, Greenpeace said. --AFP, AP     Bid to end moratorium? GENEVA -- The World Wide Fund for Nature accused Japan yesterday of trying to win votes of developing countries to secure the reversal of a moratorium on whale hunting. The group said Caribbean countries in particular were being targeted with offers of development aid in return for votes at the International Whaling Commission (IWC). ""If this Japanese offensive continues unchecked, it could lead to the resumption of large-cale commercial whaling within a few years,'' the group's coordinator for whales and the Antarctic, Ms Cassandra Phillips, said. ""It is time for Japan to stop putting its efforts into undermining the IWC and instead focus on working with the international community to ensure a safe future for the world's whales,'' she added in a press release. --AFP