Japan Authorizes Catch Of 227 Whales Of 3 Kinds Until End Of Year - Fisheries Agency

TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2019) Japan is set to resume commercial whaling on Monday, establishing a whales production quota of 227 mammals of three different kinds could be caught until the end of the year, Japan's Fisheries Agency said.

According to the agency, catch of 52 minke whales, 150 Bryde's whales and 25 sei whales was authorized in the Japanese economic zone.

In December, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that Tokyo had decided to pull out from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) starting in 2019 to resume commercial whaling in July after a 30-year pause.

The IWC banned commercial whaling in 1986, but some countries including Japan, Norway and Iceland have exploited a provision in the 1946 Convention for the Regulation of Whaling that allows whales to be killed for scientific purposes.

In March 2014, the International Court of Justice ordered Japan to suspend its research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean, saying it violated the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. However, Japan restarted its whaling activities with a lower catch quota.