KUSHIRO — Japanese whaling ships prepared on Sunday to set to sea, with crews gathering on decks in a northern port a day ahead of Japan’s first commercial whaling hunt in more than 30 years. Japan announced last year it was leaving the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and would resume commercial whaling on July 1, sparking global condemnation and fears for the world’s whales. Critics said the it was simply commercial whaling in disguise. “Maybe now that commercial whaling is going to restart, it’ll be cheaper and we can get our hands on it more easily.”The hunt will be confined to Japan’s exclusive economic zone. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose district includes the old whaling center of Shimonoseki, has long campaigned to restart commercial whaling, but the industry’s future is far from clear.

Source: National Post June 30, 2019 09:33 UTC