The whaling expedition was Japan’s first since a 2014 landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the primary judicial branch of the United Nations.
The ICJ ruled that Japan’s JARPA II whaling program for whaling in the Antarctic was not for scientific purposes and was, therefore, illegal. Japan was forced to stop at that time but declared it would resume the scientific studies.
Japan amended its whaling plan, including cutting the number of whales they planned to harvest by around two-thirds. Japan said the whaling fleet intends to take 4,000 whales over the next 12 years as part of their new research plan, described as “kind of a scientific research plan” and called NEWREP-a, according to a press release from the country’s Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR).
The ICR said whalers in the four-ship fleet took 333 minke whales during its four-month expedition, filling its quota. Reuters is reporting that there were 103 males and 230 females, with 90 percent of the mature females being pregnant.
“The number of pregnant females is consistent with previous hunts, indicating that the breeding situation of minke whales in the Antarctic is healthy,” the ICR said in a statement.
Japan continues to insist that most whales are not endangered and that eating whale is a cultural thing, even though most Japanese people don’t really have a taste for the meat.
The 1986 international ban on whaling exempted whaling for “scientific research.” Opponents of Japan’s Antarctic whale hunts say that because the whale meat is sold to consumers, the research is a cover for commercial whaling, according to US News.
