1.   Japan has strongly defended its research hunts, contending that most whale species are not endangered and that in some cases they are overabundant and depleting fish stocks.

2.   Opponents immediately protested, saying that the research hunt was really a commercial hunt, since the pelts will be sold.

3.   Opponents immediately protested, saying that the research hunt was really a disguised commercial hunt for pups, since the pelts will be sold.

4.   All hunting, including a Japanese research hunt allowed by the IWC and subsistence hunting by aboriginal whalers, is banned in a whale sanctuary.

5.   Japan conducts research hunts twice a year.

6.   Japan conducts research hunts twice a year under an IWC program that allows limited catches for scientific research on feeding habits and migration patterns.

7.   Nagamoto said Japan conducts research hunts twice a year.

8.   Schmitt was supported by representatives from Britain, New Zealand, Mexico and Brazil, who urged Japan to stop its research hunts.

9.   The government also will allow baby seal pelts from the research hunt to be sold.

10.   The government will allow the valuable seal pup pelts to be sold, leading to claims that the research hunt is really a commercial hunt.