"Japanese police have launched a probe after nets on holding pens for dolphins in the coastal town of Taiji were cut during an annual hunt, possibly by foreign activists, a press report said Wednesday.

They are looking into whether the incident is connected with a statement posted on the website of Black Fish, a European conservation organisation, Kyodo news agency quoted investigators as saying.

The statement said the group's divers had cut the nets of six pens holding dolphins caught during the hunt which started on September 2, the report added.

A number of dolphins were able to swim back out to sea as a result, the statement said."

AFP had the story September 29, 2010. [2]