BRUSSELS, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Environmental organization Greenpeace demonstrated outside the Dutch Parliament buildings in The Hague on Tuesday with dead dolphins and whales to urge the Netherlands to take a leading role in protecting these animals, Dutch news agency ANP reported.

    The animal bodies on display have all been washed ashore on beaches throughout Europe over the past few months. The animals were injured by fishing nets and ships' propellers.

    The dead animals were frozen by Greenpeace and will be displayed in cities throughout Europe this week to raise public awareness to the problem, Greenpeace said.

    The International Whaling Commission is meeting this week in Alaska, the United States. Japan has been trying to secure quotas for some of its coastal communities to hunt endangered humpback whales.

    The 76-nation commission on Tuesday approved extending bowhead whaling quotas for Alaska Eskimos for subsistence hunting.

    According to Greenpeace, 300,000 whales and dolphins die each year after becoming entangled in fishing nets. The organization wants more and larger marine reserves to be designated so that the populations of threatened species can be restored. ¡¡