Greanpeace volunteers dumped the body of a dead whale outside the Japanese embassy in Berlin today. The dead fin whale measuring 17m (56ft) long and almost 20 tonnes had been transported to Berlin from the Baltic coast where it had died in a beaching incident on a sandbank.

The message to the press was that Japan has no need to kill whales for research because cadavers can be found and measured instead. Of course Japan wouldn't do that because it's co-called scientific research is just a cop-out designed to let them continue commercial whaling despite a worldwide ban.

In 1986 the International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling, but Japan resumed hunting the following year by claiming to be whaling for scientific purposes. During the first four months of 2006 they are expected to kill 935 minke whales in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary and those whales end up on restaurant tables and sushi bars in Japan.

Greenpeace hung a banner at the whale drop reading, "Science doesn't need harpoons! Stop the senseless whaling!"