According to Japan’s Fisheries Agency, the country’s whaling feet has returned with 333 minke whales harvested from Antarctic waters.

Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research sent a four ship fleet to the Antarctic Ocean, which killed 333 minke whales, out of which 230 were female. Adding to it, reportedly, 90% of those whales were pregnant.

To know about the minke whale populations in the Antarctic Ocean, the research was conducted, the Japanese Ministry of Fisheries said.  

The purpose was to study the best methods for managing minke populations. There were no incidents with anti-whaling activists, the ministry added.

Earlier, New Zealand and Australia, have raised concerns about the legitimacy of the scientific research contention. The United Nation's International Court of Justice in 2014, ordered Japan to stop its whaling programme, over concerns of its whaling activities in the Antarctic region.

On the other side, Greenpeace, the biggest opponent of Japan’s whaling activity  stated in a tweet, “The Japanese whaling fleet defies the UN and kills 333 whales, including 200 pregnant mothers.”

Though Japan was receiving several international orders, it continued to reject those, saying that their intention is just to conduct research, but not extending it to commercial purposes.    

However, from the 1986 international ban on commercial whaling, the scientific research gets exemption.

On the contrary, the International Court of Justice rejected Japan's scientific claims and ordered an end to its JARPA II (The Japanese Whale Research Program under Special Permit in the Antarctic) research, which claims to study the maintenance and improvement of the minke whale population and the effects of environmental changes on the whale's food supply, according to its website.

According to Japan’s Fisheries Agency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan launched a new research programme, after the court ruling in 2014 that says 333 whales could be killed annually.

In December 2015, the four vessels left the port of Shimonoseki, southwest of Tokyo and returned yesterday. The expedition was part of a 12-year program that will kill 4,000 minke whales.

By Phani Ch