apan's top whaling ship returned to port Tuesday, leading an embattled fleet that killed just 55 percent of its season target of 1,000 whales amid violent protests in the Antarctic.
The Nisshin Maru made a special stop in Tokyo so the coast guard could inspect it for possible damage sustained during heated clashes in which animal rights activists tossed containers of rancid acid at the whalers.
The fleet killed 551 minke whales this season, far below the plan of up to 935 minke and 50 fin whales. Japan had also planned to take 50 humpback whales this year, but postponed that in December in the face of an international outcry.
Japanese whaling officials criticized protesters for interfering, but vowed to press ahead with the hunt, which is allowed under international rules as a scientific program despite the 1986 ban on commercial whaling.
``The number of whales taken was low of course because of the sabotage,'' said Shigeki Takaya, a Fisheries Agency spokesman for whaling. ``We're angry that they can carry out such dangerous activities, and it doesn't bother them.''
The fleet left Japan in November and faced continual harassment from the animal rights groups Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace, which chased the boats across the Antarctic throughout the season.
Some protesters hurled containers of rancid butter and acid at the whalers, and the Japanese coast guard shot back ``sound balls'' similar to stun grenades. In January, two Sea Shepherd activists jumped onto a Japanese ship and spent several days in detention on board.
Activists this week said even the reduced take of whales was too large, and called on Japan to renounce the hunt at the next meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Chile in May.
``The Japanese government should ... salvage their international reputation by announcing an end to Southern Ocean whaling and make a commitment to whale conservation, not destruction,'' Greenpeace said in a statement.
Australia, one of the most vocal opponent of Japan's research hunt, also renewed its objection to Japan's whale hunt.
``It remains Australia's firm view that there is no scientific justification for Japan's whale hunt in the Southern Ocean,'' said Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Environment Minister Peter Garrett in a statement.
The ministers also condemned violence and illegal activities by anti-whaling activists that could endanger safety at sea.
Japanese officials said they would continue with their research plans.
Takaya said it was too soon to tell whether the lower number of whales taken would have an impact on Tokyo's scientific program, which concentrates on gauging whale populations to bolster Japan's claim that the mammals are plentiful enough to be hunted commercially.
``Scientifically speaking, we have to take the data from the killed whales, but we'll work hard to make sure that the low number of whales taken so far will have no effect on the research,'' he said.
The hunt this year was also hindered by unusual ice flows impeding the Japanese ships, which found fewer minke whales in parts of the ocean they last tracked two years ago, the government said.
Japan's hunt, which also provides supermarkets and upscale restaurants with whale meat, has come under increasing international pressure in recent years as Tokyo has expanded its catch.
The Antarctic hunt last year was cut short after 508 whales were killed because of a fire aboard a Japanese ship that killed one crew member. That hunt also faced heated high seas protests, but officials said the fire was unrelated to the demonstrations.
Japan has failed in efforts to have the IWC strike down the commercial whaling ban and grant wider hunting rights to small-scale coastal whalers. It has threatened to resign from the commission.
Tokyo has long argued that the whaling ban should only apply to endangered species. It also accuses the West of hypocrisy for criticizing current Japanese whaling after American and European whalers nearly wiped out the mammals in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Japanese have hunted whales for centuries, and whale meat was widely eaten in the lean years after World War II. The meat, however, has plunged in popularity in today's prosperous Japan and, while still on the menu in a few upscale Tokyo restaurants, is only eaten regularly in small coastal whaling communities.