The mother ship of Japan's four-vessel whaling fleet will set sail Friday from Tokyo port to deliver relief supplies to areas stricken by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged northeastern Japan, the captain said Thursday.
The 8,044-ton Nisshin Maru, which returned to Japan Monday from an aborted whaling voyage to the Antarctic Ocean, is now loading tons of supplies, including kerosene, charcoal fuel and cup noodles, for a plan to arrive Sunday at a yet undecided port in the disaster area, captain Tomoyuki Ogawa said.
The vessel took aboard 5 tons of charcoal, 100,000 cup noodles, kerosene tanks and other supplies with cranes Thursday. It will also deliver heavy oil in its on-board fuel tank to quake-stricken areas, he said.
''We want to deliver the supplies to areas such as isolated remote islands,'' the captain said.
On Feb. 18, the mother ship and three whaling vessels halted their so-called research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean for this season, which had been due to run until March, due to obstructive actions by the antiwhaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
