Japan said Wednesday it is withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission and will resume commercial whaling next year, sparking criticism from activists and anti-whaling countries including Australia. The announcement comes after Japan failed earlier this year to convince the IWC to allow it to resume commercial whaling. Japan joins Iceland and Norway in openly defying the IWC’s ban on commercial whale hunting, and its decision sparked international criticism. “Australia remains resolutely opposed to all forms of commercial and so-called ‘scientific’ whaling,” Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Environment Minister Melissa Price said in a statement. It was not yet clear how many whales would be caught each year once Japan resumes commercial whaling.

Source: Egypt Independent December 26, 2018 09:11 UTC