Japanese whalers return, without harpoons

JAPANESE whalers are heading back to the Antarctic Ocean to carry out non-lethal research on whales after a UN court decision.

TWO Japanese whaling ships without harpoons left from Shimonoseki port in western Japan, and their research will not involve hunting whales, the Fisheries Agency said on Thursday.

Japan gave up what it said was "research whaling" this season after the International Court of Justice in The Hague halted the much-criticised program in March, ruling that it contravenes a 1986 moratorium on whale hunting.Tokyo has vowed to resume "research whaling" in the next financial year, starting in April, and submitted to the International Whaling Commission a revised plan that cuts the target number of minke whales for hunting by two-thirds from the previous target to 333.In 1987, Japan officially halted commercial whaling.However, since then the country has conducted "research whaling" under what critics say is a loophole in the IWC charter.