Japanese whaling vessels left port Thursday for an annual hunting voyage in the Antarctic, this time to kill 333 minke whales, despite international calls to stop the practice.

The fisheries agency said a group of five ships, headed by the 8,145-tonne mother ship Nisshin Maru, will conduct the hunt until March to study whale behaviour and biology.

The voyage has been carried out since 2015 "to devise more precise calculation methods for a sustainable catch limit for Antarctic minke whales as well as to study the ecosystem of the Antarctic waters", the ministry said in a statement.

Japan is a signatory to the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) moratorium on hunting, but exploits a loophole that allows whales to be killed in the name of scientific research.

In 2014, the United Nations' International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Tokyo to end its regular hunt in the Antarctic waters, saying the project did not meet conventional scientific standards.

Japan cancelled its 2014-15 hunt, only to resume it the following year under a new programme -- saying the fresh plan had genuine scientific value.

Tokyo says it is trying to prove the whale population is large enough to sustain a return to commercial hunting for a traditional source of food.

Japanese whalers have in the past clashed on the high seas with animal rights campaigners, particularly Sea Shepherd.

The fisheries agency said it was taking measures to ensure the safety of its whalers and urged countries that provide ports to Sea Shepherd ships to cooperate.

Tweet

For these baleen whales, hunting requires little more than treading water
Washington DC (SPX) Nov 09, 2017
Rorqual whales are known for their impressive lunge-feeding behavior. As the name suggests, this method involves lunging forward with mouth opened wide to engulf large quantities of water, which is then strained through a series of baleen plates to leave many individually tiny prey behind. But researchers reporting in Current Biology on November 6 have made the surprising discovery that Bryde's ... read more

Related Links
Follow the Whaling Debate

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only