Japan’s Pacific whale hunt ends with 115 whales dead

Japanese whaling vessels have concluded a two and a half month whale hunt in the Pacific, killing 115.

Japanese fisheries representatives have reportedly confirmed that 90 Sei whales and 25 Bryde’s whales were slaughtered in the second whale hunt of its kind conducted since the United Nations’ highest court ruled that Japan must halt a separate ‘scientific’ hunt in the Antarctic on the grounds that Japan’s annual whaling expedition to the Southern Ocean was a commercial hunt masquerading as research.

Japan has hunted whales under a loophole in the 1986 global ban that allows whales to be killed for research. However, vast amounts of the meat ends up in restaurants and fish markets.

The Japanese prime minister recently stated the country’s intent to begin the Antarctic hunts again by making them more scientific. In June, officials announced that 30 minke whales had also been killed as part of a Japanese coastal whaling hunt.