Greenpeace Stages Whaling Protest

SAN FRANCISCO —  The anti-whaling group, Greenpeace, littered the lobby of a Japan Air Lines office with about 100 inflated plastic whales Tuesday to protest the Japanese whaling industry’s heavy annual catch of the mammals.

Shortly before noon, members of the organization stopped in front of the airline’s downtown office with a truck filled with plastic whales and began carting them into the lobby.

Within minutes, the lobby was waist-deep with about 100 three-foot-long inflated whales. No arrests were made.

Japan Air Lines was targeted by Greenpeace because it receives subsidies from the Japanese government, a spokesman for the demonstrators said. The group’s leaders said similar demonstrations were planned for the airline’s offices in Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia.