Taiji (Japan), Feb 26 (DPA) Japanese fishermen are currently conducting an annual dolphin hunt, with government approval, which kills thousands of the aquatic mammals, despite protests from international environmental organisations.

Hideki Moronuki, spokesman for the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, said 16,000-17,000 dolphins are killed on an average in the hunt every year, but environmentalists said the number exceeds 20,000.

In the whaling port of Taiji alone, about 700 km south of Tokyo, about 150 dolphins have been encircled, driven into lagoons and killed with lances or knives in the past several days.

The mammals that survive unwounded are sold to aquariums around the world.

The billion-dollar dolphin industry "supports the hunt, which supplements the fishermen's poor salaries", said environmentalist Richard O'Barry, an American who was a dolphin trainer for the 1960s television series "Flipper" before becoming an advocate for protecting the mammals in 1970.

Fishermen, in places where the hunt is carried out, defend it as part of the traditions and cuisine of the region.

"We kill dolphins because we need them to live," said Yoji Kita, chairman of Taiji's education committee.

The fishermen make an effort, however, to shorten the dolphins' suffering, Kita added, a claim that critics contest.