A fleet of Japanese whalers set off Sunday into the Pacific for the Antarctic Ocean to hunt the huge marine animal, this time including 50 famed humpback whales.

The four-ship fleet, led by the 8,044-ton Nisshin Maru, got on its controversial journey from Japan's western port of Shimonoseki. This will be the first time for Japan to restart its hunting of humpbacks since an international moratorium regarding the species was established in 1966.

Japan has always been claiming that its whaling program is for scientific purpose and the world whale populations could afford a limited catch.

However, the expansion to include humpbacks may arouse much more fierce opposition from anti-whaling nations and organizations.

The Greenpeace, the major environmental movement organization, is ready on high sea to trail and try to check the Japanese fleet with its Esperanza ship, according to its news release.

Japan kills 1,000 whales annually. The Japanese agriculture, forestry and fishery ministry's hunting target for this year is 1, 035 whales.

(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2007)