The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Japan's Southern Ocean whale hunt was illegal under international law.
The world said the "scientific" whaling program in Antarctica did not meet the International Whaling Commission (IWC) regulations, an International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) news release reported.
The ruling means whales living in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary will be fully protected from commercial slaughter, even when it is being disguised as "science."
"We welcome the court's findings," said Patrick Ramage, IFAW's Global Whale Program Director, said in the news release. "IFAW had long pushed for whales to have their day in court, and we are very pleased that justice has been served.
"The government of Japan has a strong record of genuinely respecting international institutions and we fully expect Japan will abide by the Court's ruling," Ramage said. "We respectfully urge Japan, Iceland and Norway, the last three countries still killing whales for commercial purposes, to accept that whaling has no place in the 21st Century and to act in compliance with the judicial precedent set by the court today."
The IWC banned commercial whaling in 1986; in 1994 a declaration was released along with 30 IWC resolutions that strongly opposed Japan's whaling. Independent panels have consistently found the practice "unlawful' under international law," the news release reported.
"The market for whale meat in all three countries is in freefall; it is time they joined the rest of the family of nations in abandoning this outdated and uneconomic industry," Ramage said.
Since the global moratorium on commercial whaling was released Japan has slaughtered over 14,000 whales "in the name of science," most of these whales lived in the Southern Ocean. Whaling is believed to be extremely inhumane and video analyses have determined the animals take about half an hour to die.
