TOKYO, (MILLAT ONLINE/APP/AFP) – A Japanese whaling fleet
returned to port Friday after an annual Antarctic hunt that killed more than 300 of the mammals as Tokyo pursues the programme in defiance of global criticism.
The fleet set sail for the Southern Ocean in November, with plans to
slaughter 333 minke whales, flouting a worldwide moratorium and opposition led by Australia and New Zealand.
The fleet consisted of five ships, three of which arrived in the
morning at Shimonoseki port in western Japan, the country’s Fisheries Agency said.
More than 200 people, including crew members and their families,
gathered in the rain for a 30-minute ceremony in front of the Nisshin Maru, the fleet’s main ship, according to an official of the Shimonoseki City government.
In a press release, the agency described the mission as “research for
the purpose of studying the ecological system in the Antarctic Sea”.
But environmentalists and the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
call that a fiction and say the real purpose is simply to hunt whales for their meat.
Anticipating the fleet’s return, animal protection charity Humane
Society International called for an end to Japanese whaling.