Japanese vessels leave for minke whale hunt off northeastern coast

Japanese vessels left a port in northern Japan on Tuesday to conduct what the government calls research whaling off the country's northeastern coast, a whaling group and the Fisheries Agency said.The vessels plan to catch around 30 minke whales in the northwestern Pacific, between 50 to 90 kilometers off the Sanriku coast, until mid-August so they can analyse their stomach contents and use the gathered data to manage marine resources, according to the agency and the Association for Community-Based Whaling.A pair of vessels left the port of Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture in the morning."We a…READ FULL ARTICLE