13 Jul 2011

Japan to continue whaling in Antarctica

5:04 pm on 13 July 2011

Japan has confirmed it intends to send its whaling fleet back to the Southern Ocean this year.

Commercial whaling has been banned worldwide since 1986 but Japan justifies its annual hunts in the area as lethal scientific research.

After an early withdrawal in February, Japan has told the International Whaling Commission meeting in Britain's Channel Islands it will return this year.

Its deputy commissioner to IWC, Joji Morishita, told the BBC Japan is considering how to stop what he called the attack from anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society from happening again.

Sea Shepherd forced the whalers to finish the hunt early with less than a quarter of its target catch and says it will be back in the Southern Ocean also.

The ABC reports the Japanese have requested help from New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands to protect their boats from anti-whaling activists, saying effective measures are essential. Australia has rejected the request.

During the IWC meeting in Jersey, Japanese delegates showed pictures and videos they said showed the campaigners attacking whaling vessels with burning flares and foul-smelling butyric acid.

They also showed Sea Shepherd boats ramming the whalers and said reinforced ropes had been put in the water to entangle propellers.