Japan will go ahead with its whaling program in the Antarctic later this year under heightened security to fend off activists who have vowed to disrupt the annual hunt, the country’s fisheries minister said.
Japan’s whale hunts have become increasingly tense in recent years because of clashes with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The most recent expedition was cut short after several high-seas confrontations, and it was unclear whether the hunt would be held at all this year.
But fisheries minister Michihiko Kano said Tuesday that measures would be taken to ensure the whalers’ safety, and that the hunt would go ahead. It is expected to begin in December.
Commercial whaling has been banned since 1986, but Japan conducts whale hunts in the Antarctic and the northwestern Pacific under an exception that allows limited kills for research purposes.
Japan’s government claims the research is needed to provide data on whale populations so that the international ban on commercial whaling can be re-examined — and, Japan hopes, lifted — based on scientific studies.
Read the complete article from The Boston Globe