Record-low number of whales hunted off Japan's north-east

TOKYO: A Japanese team caught 19 minke whales off the country's north-east coast this year, the lowest number since what Japan calls scientific research whaling started there in 2003, a report said Thursday.
Toshihiro Mogoe, who led the team, said they witnessed only 33 whales, also the lowest number, as a result of low water temperatures, Kyodo News agency reported.
The whaling area "was insufficient as a feeding ground for minke whales and the number was small," Mogoe said.
Mogoe's team dispatched a fleet of four whaling ships for 23 days from April 10, shorter than the period initially planned due in part to bad weather. They had planned to hunt up to 51 minke whales.
The purpose of coastal whaling, which is part of Japan's scientific research programme in the north-western Pacific Ocean, is to look into the minke's impact on marine resources, Tokyo said.
In March 2014, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered the suspension of Japan's controversial research whaling programme, ruling that it contravenes a 1986 moratorium on whale hunting.
The ruling prompted Tokyo to review its programme in the north-western Pacific and scale down operations.
Japan officially halted commercial whaling in 1987 but has conducted "research whaling" ever since under what critics argue is a loophole in the charter of the International Whaling Commission. Critics say the country's annual hunt is a cover for commercial whaling. – dpa