Japan kills 333 whales in annual Antarctic hunt

Tokyo : A Japanese whaling fleet returned to port today after an annual Antarctic hunt that killed more than 300 of the mammals as Tokyo pursues the programme in defiance of global criticism.The fleet set sail for the Southern Ocean in November, with plans to slaughter 333 minke whales, flouting a worldwide moratorium and opposition led by Australia and New Zealand.The fleet consisted of five ships, three of which arrived in the morning at Shimonoseki port in western Japan, the country’s Fisheries Agency said. More than 200 people, including crew members and their families, gathered in the rain for a 30-minute ceremony in front of the Nisshin Maru, the fleet’s main ship, according to an official of the Shimonoseki City government.
In a press release, the agency described the mission as “research for the purpose of studying the ecological system in the Antarctic Sea”.
But environmentalists and the International Court of Justice (IJC) call that a fiction and said the real purpose was simply to hunt whales for their meat.
Anticipating the fleet’s return, animal protection charity Humane Society International called for an end to Japanese whaling.
“Each year that Japan persists with its discredited scientific whaling is another year where these wonderful animals are needlessly sacrificed,” said Kitty Block, the group’s executive vice president.
“It is an obscene cruelty in the name of science that must end,” she said in a release.
Japan also caught 333 minke whales in the previous season ending in 2016 after a one-year hiatus prompted by an IJC ruling, which said the hunt was a commercial venture masquerading as science and ordered Tokyo to end it.