Japan whaling ship returns after taking 25 fin whales in Sea of Okhotsk
A commercial whaling ship returned to a port in northeastern Japan on Monday carrying 25 fin whales taken in the Sea of Okhotsk.
The fin whale hunt in Japan's exclusive economic zone, north of the northern island of Hokkaido, was conducted for the first time since Japan formally withdrew from the International Whaling Commission in 2019.
About 320 tons of fin whale meat were unloaded at Sendai port in Miyagi Prefecture on Monday, with some 1.6 tons set to be transported to six markets across the country including Tokyo and Osaka as raw meat.
The ship departed Shimonoseki port in the western Japanese prefecture of Yamaguchi on April 21.
The Japanese Fisheries Agency added fin whales to the list of commercial whaling target species in 2024, setting a catch quota of 60 for this year.
As an International Whaling Commission member, Japan halted commercial whaling in 1988 but continued to hunt whales for what it called research purposes.
The practice was criticized internationally as a cover for commercial whaling.
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