Groups are exempt from the 1986 international ban on commercial whaling if they say they are doing so for research. Specifically, Japanese officials called the killings “research for the purpose of studying the ecological system in the Antarctic Sea,” Agence France-Presse reported Friday. Opponents of the program say it’s a cover for commercial whaling. The Japanese fleets sell the whales they’ve killed for food. Japan has faced international protests over the hunts, and Greenpeace activists have confronted the fleets at sea in an effort to protect the whales.

Source: Huffington Post April 01, 2017 14:48 UTC