Japan may submit smaller whale hunt quotas after ruling

Japan could try to rescue its Antarctic whaling program by sharply reducing catch quotas after the highest UN court ordered a halt, rejecting Tokyo's argument that the catch was for scientific purposes and not mainly for human consumption.

The judgment by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, was a blow to Japan's decades-old "scientific whaling" program, but Tokyo might be able to resume Antarctic whaling if it devises a more persuasive program that requires killing whales.

"Deeply disappointed", Tokyo said it would honor the ruling but did not exclude the possibility of future whaling programs. New Zealand expressed concerns that Japan may try to circumvent the order.

The Japanese government was likely to submit to the International Whaling Commission a new "scientific whaling" program with sharply reduced catch quotas in an effort to resume the annual hunts, the Asahi newspaper reported on Tuesday

The outlook was tough, however, as more than half of the whaling commission's members oppose whaling, the newspaper said.

The International Court of Justice's ruling agreed with plaintiff Australia's position that the scientific research resulting from the Antarctic whaling did not justify the number of whales killed.

Japan also conducts separate hunts in the northern Pacific, and Japanese fishermen carry out small-scale coastal whaling. An annual dolphin slaughter has also been the object of harsh global criticism.

On Tuesday, a Japanese minister defended whaling - seen by some as an important cultural practice -and pointedly stopped short of detailing what next steps Japan could take.

"Whale meat is an important source of food, and the government's position to use it based on scientific facts has not changed," Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said.

The UN tribunal said no further licenses should be issued for scientific whaling, where animals are first examined for research purposes before the meat is sold to consumers.

"The research objectives must be sufficient to justify the lethal sampling," said Presiding Judge Peter Tomka of Slovakia.

Japan signed a 1986 moratorium on whaling but has continued to hunt up to 850 minke whales a year in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean, as well as smaller numbers of fin and humpback whales, citing a 1946 treaty that permits killing the whales for research. Japan has said research whaling is needed to assess whether whale stocks are recovering from overfishing.

Whaling was once widespread around the world, but Japan is now one of only a handful of countries, including Iceland and Norway, that continue the practice on a large scale.

While some Japanese view whale meat as a delicacy, and whalers and the government argue whaling is an important tradition, consumers' appetite for the meat has shrunk even as the hunts made Japan a target of much international reproach.

Reuters-AFP