“Australia and New Zealand appealed to Japan Monday to halt a whaling fleet headed for the Antarctic to hunt humpback whales, and Japanese officials denied activists’ claim that the ships had turned off their radio locators to avoid detection. The fleet left southern Japan’s Shimonoseki port Sunday morning. The whalers plan to kill up to 50 humpback whales in what is believed to be the first large-scale hunt for the once nearly extinct species since a 1963 moratorium in the Southern Pacific put them under international protection. The mission also aims to kill as many as 935 minke whales and up to 50 fin whales in what Japan’s Fisheries Agency says is its largest-ever scientific [sic] whale hunt. The expedition lasts through April.” (11/19/07)