WASHINGTON: A pair of vessels on Jan. 8 departed for the Antarctic Ocean where crews will conduct research on whales without capturing them for the first time, in line with an international court ruling.
The boats, the 724-ton Yushin Maru and the 747-ton Daini Yushin Maru, will not be carrying harpoons following a ruling last March by a United Nations court, which said that Japan’s whaling breached international agreements.
The whales will be studied through sighting surveys, and samples will be taken of whale skins, according to the agency. An official at the agency told Japan Real Time that nonlethal equipment would be used to scrape the skin off the whale. The changes are in light of the U.N. ruling, he said.
The research in the Antarctic will be conducted by Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research togather information on whale counts and study biological and ecological conditions. The two boats, carrying about 40 crew members, are scheduled to return to Japan in late March.
The March ruling, handed down by The Hague-based International Court of Justice, said that Japan catches far too many whales in the name of scientific study. The Japanese government expressed disappointment but said it would abide by the court order.
The government in November decided it would catch 333 minke whales in the Antarctic annually from the fiscal year beginning in April, which is about one-third of the quota in fiscal 2013. The government said the new plan responded to the reasoning and conclusions of the court judgment.
