catch fell one short of the total for 2006-7 season, when the fleet returned home early after a fire broke out aboard the Nissin Maru.

Japan is permitted to slaughter the whales for "scientific research" thanks to a clause in the International Whaling Commission's 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.

As the commission prepares to meet in Morocco in June, Japan has proposed scaling back its Antarctic hunts in return for permission to step up its coastal whaling activities.

Australia, which opposes the move, has threatened to take Japan to the international court of justice unless its ends its annual hunts in the Southern Ocean, in the Antarcatic region.

The whale wars will continue in Japan with the resumption of the trial of two Greenpeace activists charged with theft and trespassing while investigatingto feel every emotion, including, but not limited to: anger, disgust, being totally pissed at God and Noah, despair, jealousy, hope, peace, happiness, trust, failure, anger at the unknown, frustration with "modern medicine" and the "system" of politics and insurance, surrender, peace deep down that I can't explain, hope that there is a reason for everything and it's okay that I don't understand it, and trust that He's not done with me yet...for some crazy reason.

I looked around the room again for a break in eye contact. Saw the same guy, smiling huge in a photo where he was hugging the woman across from me...

Me: "What is your last name?"Her: "Such and such..."Me: "We'll be at barbecues together in the future...our husband's just went to Bolivia together."

She asked