Japan Lifts Ban on Hunt for Whales

Japan is lifting a ban on hunting bottlenose whales in the Sea of Japan and will allow ships to kill up to eight of the animals there this year, an official said Monday.

Japanese whalers have not hunted the animals in the area, off the western coast of the main northern island, Hokkaido, since 1972. Japan had limited hunting of bottlenose whales to the Pacific Ocean, off the country’s eastern coast.

Ships now will be allowed to hunt the whales in the Sea of Japan until the end of June, said a forestry and fisheries ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The bottlenose whale falls outside the jurisdiction of the International Whaling Commission, but Japan voluntarily limited its catch to 54 animals from four areas off the Pacific coast last year, the official said. He said Japan will continue to limit the catch in the Pacific to 54 animals.

Commercial whaling on the high seas has been banned since 1986. But hundreds of whales are hunted each year in what the government calls a research program.