clipped from: www.ens-newswire.com The fleet left its home port of Shimonoseki after a ceremony featuring family and friends of the crew holding smiling whale balloons and signs as a brass band played Popeye the Sailor Man.
Japan has announced that the fleet intends to kill 50 endangered fin whales, 50 threatened humpback whales and 935 minke whales this season.
The European Commission said today that it is "deeply concerned by Japan's plans to kill up to 1,000 minke, fin and humpback whales in a South Pacific whale hunt that will run until mid-April 2008."
"The whaling fleet must be recalled now," said Karli Thomas aboard the Greenpeace ship Esperanza off Shimonoseki on Sunday. "If it is not, we will take direct, non-violent action to stop the hunt."
Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson assures the world that his crew will not be violent in its protest actions.