Japan's whaling program will be started again in the middle of next year, just two weeks after the International Court of Justice placed a temporary halt to the country's controversial Antarctic whaling program, the Washington Post reported.
As soon as the moratorium of permits in the 2014-2015 season are lifted by Japan's governments, the Institute for Cetacean Research, which directs most of Japan's whaling missions, expects to continue whaling, the institute said in a federal lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle on Friday.
"Plaintiffs expect that they will be conducting a Southern Ocean research program for subsequent seasons that would be in accord with the [ICJ] decision," the institute said in its lawsuit seeking an injunction against the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an environmental group.
After last month's International Court of Justice halt on Japan's whaling, environmentalists had hailed the decision. But with the institute's announcement on Friday, the battle lines are drawn again between Japan's whalers and outraged environmentalists.
"The matter was initially brought before the international court in 2010 when Australia accused Japan, which has had rights to kill unlimited numbers of whales in the Antarctic, of hiding its commercial whaling industry under a veil of research," the Washington Post reported. "In a 12-4 decision, the court ordered Japan to temporarily halt operations."
However, Australia was accused by Japan of imposing its "cultural norms" on them. But Japan still decided to abide by the decision even though the country has long maintained that most whale species aren't in danger of extinction.
"As a state that respects the rule of law ... and as a responsible member of the global community, Japan will abide by the ruling of the court," Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Noriyuki Shikata said.
The institute's decision to return back to whaling was met with disappointment and anger by the Australian officials, the Washington Post reported.
"The prime minister needs to immediately issue a public statement that he will not accept a return to Southern Ocean whaling and will pursue all legal avenues to prevent it happening," Australian Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson told the Associated Press.
