Hayden Panettiere is "Hero" to Whales

When Hayden Panettiere isn't acting like she's saving the world, she's really trying to do it, by saving the environment. Recently, the actress from the NBC show Heroes spoke at The Weather Channel's "Forecast Earth Summit" in Washington D.C. In addition, Panettiere is a spokesperson for Save the Whales Again group and issued a letter to the Japanese government about whale and dolphin slaughters on her MySpace page.

But Panettiere isn't just talk, she takes action.

In October, Panettiere and a group of activists held a protest in the water in Taiji, Japan. According to an account on the Save the Whales Again website, they were planning to have a ceremony to honor thousands of dolphins the group says are killed in Japan each year. The site says the activists paddled surfboards through "waters stained with blood" and formed a circle near pilot whales that were trapped in a netted enclosure.

According to the Save the Whales Again website and an Access Hollywood story linked to the site, things quickly became dangerous. Both accounts say Japanese fishermen began poking the surfers with a pole, and came close to them with boat propellers. You can see pictures and video of the confrontation on both websites.

The activists were forced to return to shore -- Panettiere in tears.

While that effort may not have ended as they would have liked, Panettiere is still trying.

On her MySpace page, Panettiere posted a letter she says is from a Japanese official in Washington D.C.

It reads in part - "Japan is carefully managing marine living resources for the future. The government's fisheries policies are based on scientific information and take into account the opinions of the public."

In a response, Panettiere writes:

"Japan is cruelly and needlessly butchering over 20,000 dolphins and other small cetaceans every year. There is no humane way to kill a dolphin or whale and scientific research shows that dolphin and whale meat is unhealthy for human consumption."

And later, "We are determined to end Japan's brutally cruel and needless slaughter of dolphins and whales and I will do everything within my power to ensure this."

Right now, Panettiere and Save the Whales Again are trying another tactic.

They are urging people not to visit Japan or buy Japanese products. As another protester put it on the website, "We couldn't save these whales but hopefully shining the light on their deaths will save others."