LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An animated music video directed by the late actor Heath Ledger debuted on the Web on Tuesday, and it's an attack on the whaling industry set to the song "King Rat" by alternative rock band Modest Mouse.

The six-minute video cartoon uses irony to make a statement against whaling, by showing whales in a commercial vessel "hunting" for humans, which they harpoon, club to death and skin, before turning them into cookies.

Ledger in 2007 presented Modest Mouse lead singer Isaac Brock with the idea for a music video that would take a stand against the whale hunts that take place off the coast of his native Australia, said social networking website MySpace, which presented the video on Tuesday.

The video was fully conceived but unfinished when Ledger died of an accidental prescription-drug overdose in January 2008, MySpace said.

After his death, The Masses, a film and music company that Ledger was involved with, completed the video, MySpace said.

The online video debut was timed to coincide with the Tuesday release of Modest Mouse's latest CD "No One's First, and You're Next," which includes the song "King Rat."

Ledger in February won a posthumous Oscar for his supporting role as The Joker in last year's Batman movie "The Dark Knight."

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)