TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In a move likely to bring renewed international criticism, Japan said Friday that it wants to resume its research whaling in the Southern Ocean next year under a redesigned program that would address objections raised by an international court, as reported by New York Times.
In a statement, Minister of Agriculture Yoshimasa Hayashi said Japan would submit a new plan for research whaling this fall to the International Whaling Commission that would allow it to restart its annual hunts in waters off Antarctica in 2015. Earlier in April, Japan canceled this year's hunt after the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the hunts were in violation of Japan's legal obligations under an international treaty banning commercial whaling.
In its ruling, the court questioned whether the program was really for research, pointing out that it had yielded few scientific results. Japan says its 26-year-old research program is needed to monitor recovering whale populations in the Southern Ocean, but opponents call it a crude cover for continued commercial whaling.
NYTIMES | MF