Japan will dispatch a whaling fleet to the Antarctic after a one year suspension, the government said, defying international criticism and a UN legal ruling that the “research” expedition is a commercial hunt in disguise.
“The research ships will depart for new whale research in the Antarctic on December 1, 2015,” the Fisheries Agency said on Monday in a statement on its website.
Tokyo has for years come under intense global pressure to stop hunts that opponents decry as inhumane but that Japan says are an inherent part of its traditional culture.
The United Nations’ top legal body judged last year that Japan’s so-called scientific whaling activity in the Southern Ocean was a disguise for commercial hunts.
The agency’s statement said the “research period” for the mission would be from late December to early March.
The fleet will include a “mother ship” and three other vessels with a total of 160 crew members taking part, it added. Japan had earlier flagged that it planned to resume the hunts, though details of the exact timing were unclear. That alone, however, drew intense criticism.
“We do not accept in any way, shape or form the concept of killing whales for so-called ‘scientific research’,” Australian environment minister Greg Hunt said.
“There is no need to kill whales in the name of research,” he added.
“Non-lethal research techniques are the most effective and efficient method of studying all cetaceans.”
Environmental activist group Sea Shepherd warned Japan on Sunday against resuming whale hunts in the Antarctic and called on the Australian government to intervene.
Japan accuses opponents of being emotional about whales and disregarding what it says is evidence to support its position.PTI
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