Japan relaunches 'scientific whaling' in the Southern Ocean

Well, they said very clearly at the last IWC meeting that they would and now they have!

Despite the ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that their whaling programme in the Southern Ocean was illegal (as I described here), Japan has issued a new 101 research page plan that they say addresses the ICJ's concerns. It was released just a few days ago (to meet the requirement of availability six months ahead of the next meeting of the IWC's scientific committee).

Here is a response from Wayne Pacelle at the Humane Society and two articles by the doyen of journalists writing on whaling Andrew Darby.here and here.

The full Japanese plan can be found here.

In a nutshell, it is a plan to kill 333 Antarctic minke whales for each of twelve years starting in the next whaling season at the end of next year. The area to be sampled is greatly expanded from the previous programme, although the sample size is smaller and, this time, no mention is made of taking fin or humpback whales.

The arrival of the plan has been called a slap in the face of the international community.

Image of clash in Southern Ocean between protesters and Japanese 'research' shown by Japan during last IWC ,meeting