BERLIN, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The Japanese embassy in Berlin reportedly received a 20-ton fin whale cadaver, compliments of Greenpeace apparently to protest animal research in Japan.
The environmental group acted Wednesday night, using a flat bed trailer to haul the 56-foot long finback's body to the embassy compound from the Baltic Sea town of Warnemünde, where it had been brought ashore, Deutsche Welle reports. Greenpeace says it did not inform the Oceanographic Museum it planned to use the dead whale to protest the Japanese practice of killing whales for research.
"We want to show Japan how nonsensical whale-hunting is, and show them they must stop killing whales", said a Greenpeace spokesman.
The Japanese embassy criticized the action, the report said. It was not known when the dead whale was removed from the area.
Greenpeace has extended its support to environmentalists who have been blocking Japanese whale hunters in the Antarctic since December. Separately, 17 nations including Britain have lodged a protest urging Japan to stop its scientific whaling program.
