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Japan 'will continue' Pacific Ocean whaling

Move sparks anger after the country's Antarctic hunts were banned

Japan said today that it has decided to continue whaling in the Pacific Ocean, despite losing a court case on its other “research” hunt in the Antarctic.

The decision will spark anger among environmentalists who had welcomed last month’s ruling by the International Court of Justice that Tokyo’s hunt in the Southern Ocean was commercial activity disguised as science.

Japan Fisheries Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi conceded that the hunt will target fewer whales when its Pacific hunt begins on April 26, but added that Japanese whalers will observe whales in the Antarctic next season with the aim of resuming full-fledged commercial whaling.

Mr Hayashi said that the Pacific catch target was being slashed by nearly half — to about 210 from the current 380.

Japan will aim to submit new Antarctic and Pacific programmes to the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission later this year, the minister said.

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