TOKYO, Nov 17, 2008 (AFP) - Japan's whaling fleet set sail Monday, environmentalists said, apparently on an annual Antarctic hunt likely to provoke fresh friction with anti-whaling countries such as Australia. Greenpeace said its activists saw the whalers depart from a port in western Hiroshima prefecture waved off by their families and whaling officials. The Fisheries Agency and the operator of the factory ship refused to confirm whether the fleet had left on its annual five-month Antarctic voyage, which last year departed on November 18. "We cannot disclose any information on its departure out of consideration for the safety of the crew," said a spokesman for boat operator Kyodo Senpaku. Greenpeace said the fleet left from a pier on Innoshima island, instead of its usual departure point of Shimonoseki, led by the 8,000-tonne "Nisshin Maru" factory ship. "The fleet attempted to leave Japan quietly," a Greenpeace statement said. During the last Antarctic hunt, activists from the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society tracked down and hurled bottles of chemicals at the fleet in an attempt to disrupt operations, leading Japan to label them "terrorists." Greenpeace also denounced the hunt but decided not to chase the whalers this year as it fights to clear two activists being prosecuted in Japan on charges of stealing whale meat during an investigation into alleged corruption. Japan aims to kill 1,000 whales a year using a loophole in a 1986 global whaling moratorium that allows "lethal research" on the ocean giants. Tokyo says whaling is part of its culture but makes no secret the meat ends up on dinner tables. It argues that Western opponents of whaling, led by Australia, are insensitive to Japan's culture of whaling. But few Japanese eat whale on a regular basis and surveys show that many young people are questioning the hunt. As the Japanese whalers apparently set off, Australia unveiled a four-million-dollar (2.58-million US) scientific research programme aimed at persuading Japan that it is not necessary to kill the mammals to study them. The funding for the Australian programme will be used for research and scientific partnerships with other nations -- including Japan -- which will be invited to join the non-lethal research programme.