Fisheries officials said on Wednesday that Japan is soliciting international support to ask the United Nations top court to permit them to hunt minke whales again.
In 1986, an international ban on commercial whaling was enacted, except for research purposes. For the past several years, Japan has been hunting whales in the Pacific and Antarctic oceans, claiming that these kills were for research. However, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan's claims were false, and ordered them to stop killing whales.
It is difficult for Japan to avoid whaling, as it was part of the country's tradition that dates back as far as hundreds of years ago, according to Animal Planet. This history is one of the principal reasons of their continued whaling, and any attempt to stop them is considered a threat to the Japanese culture.
The Fisheries Agency of Japan is drafting a revised program to be given to the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission and discussed at the upcoming meeting in Slovenia, on Sept. 15-18.
The new program will also answer the issues raised by the court. This includes the ruling that the country's Antarctic program produced very little research contribution. Researchers initially failed to justify why many whales were killed for their studies,The Associated Press reported.
The program will also settle a catch target, which the court found to be excessive based on the actual catch. Researchers will demonstrate how they compute their sample size. The approval from the IWC's scientific committee is not compulsory; however, if Japan will continue to hunt for whales, the country may face scrutiny for such activities.
Japan also expressed their desire to stop hunting for humpback and hunt fin whales. They haven't caught any of these species for the last nine years.
