Japan announces plans to resume whaling in Antarctic

Move likely to prompt outrage after international court ruling that hunt should stop

Japan has decided to resume whaling in the Antarctic Ocean by the end of March. File photograph: Thinkstock
Japan has decided to resume whaling in the Antarctic Ocean by the end of March. File photograph: Thinkstock

Japan has decided to resume whaling in the Antarctic Ocean by the end of March after a hiatus since last year, a move likely to prompt international outrage. The International Court of Justice ruled in March last year that

Japan's decades-old whale hunt in the Antarctic should stop, prompting Tokyo to cancel the bulk of its whaling for the 2014/2015 season. The Japanese Fisheries Agency on Friday notified the International Whaling Commission that

Japan will resume whaling in the 2015/2016 season under a revised plan. The plan, which calls for cutting annual minke whale catches by two-thirds to 333, is scientifically reasonable, the agency said in a document filed with the IWC.

Japan began what it calls scientific whaling in 1987, a year after an international whaling moratorium took effect.

READ MORE

Japan has long maintained that most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of its food culture.

Reuters