Japan to End Whaling Hiatus With New Research Hunt in Antarctic
- Japan plans to take 333 whales in hunt lasting into March
- Australia, New Zealand criticize restart of research whaling
A common minke whale is unloaded at Kushiro port during a research whaling operation in Hokkaido in September.
Photographer: The Asahi Shimbun via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Japan plans to renew its research hunt for whales in the Antarctic, ending an almost two-year hiatus prompted by an international court ruling that its killing of whales couldn’t be justified for scientific purposes.
The fleet will set out on Dec. 1 and seek to take 333 whales in a study set to last into early March, Japan’s Fisheries Agency said in a statement on its website. That would be about a third of the previous research whaling target of 1,000.