Japan has caught and killed 30 minke whales in the country’s annual northwest Pacific “research” whaling campaign, officials said on Friday. The trip is the first since an international court banned such activities earlier this year.
The minke whales were caught off Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture as
part of the country's annual northwestern Pacific hunt – which
takes place form April to June – according to Japan's Fisheries
Agency. A second group of whalers is still at work.
In March, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that
Japan’s Southern Ocean efforts in the Antarctic whale hunt were
illegal under international law. It was ruled that no further
permits should be issued under Japan’s scientific whaling
program, saying that the campaign produced little actual
research. The ruling also urged Japan to re-examine the program.
Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in
April that it would submit a new plan for Antarctic whaling to
the International Whaling Commission in 2015 for the purpose of
resuming whaling in the region.
Japan has been conducting whaling research in three areas – the
Antarctic Ocean, off the coast of the northwestern Pacific Ocean,
and along the coast of the northwestern Pacific. The latter two
are not as widely known as the Antarctic hunt and were not
specifically mentioned in the court ruling.
Japanese whaling is a centuries old tradition which dates back to
the 12th century. The Japanese whaling fleet departs twice a
year. During the North Pacific campaign, whalers can kill up to
200 minke whales, 50 Brydes, 100 sei whales, and 10 sperm whales,
according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Japan has
hunted whales under a loophole in a 1986 global moratorium that
allowed it to conduct lethal research on the mammals. Meat from
the whales usually ends up in food markets.
Tokyo said it intends to prove that the whale population is large
enough to sustain commercial hunting. Japan’s Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe reiterated on Monday that the country aims to restart
commercial whaling.
"I want to aim for the resumption of commercial whaling by
conducting whaling research in order to obtain scientific data
indispensable for the management of whale resources," he
said at a parliamentary commission meeting. "To that end, I
will step up efforts further to get understanding from the
international community."
Sixty percent of Japan's residents said that research whaling
should continue – despite an international court order to halt
the hunt, and the fact that few Japanese regularly eat whale
meat, according to an Asahi Shimbun newspaper survey conducted in
April. Another survey by the newspaper in March 2002 showed that
four percent said they were occasional consumers of whale meat,
while nine percent said they have eaten it on rare occasions.
Environmental organizations have been staging various protests
against whaling, which is also popular in Norway and Iceland.