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December 2, 2008 11:58:22 AM CST

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Japan Backs Down on Whaling

Posted Dec 21, 07 7:35 AM CST in World,  Science & Health 

(Newser) – In its first-ever turnaround on whaling, the Japanese government has dropped its plans to hunt humpbacks. The about-face is a victory for Kevin Rudd, the new Australian prime minister, who had objected strenuously and ordered a patrol of the humpback hunt. Tokyo said, however, that the fleet currently en route to the Antarctic Ocean will hunt almost 1,000 whales of other species, including the giant fin whale.

Humpback whales, whose breeding season is a major tourist attraction in Australia, have been protected from hunting by a 1966 moratorium, as well as a 1986 agreement to halt all commercial whaling, which Japan evades via a loophole that allows "lethal research" on the sea mammals. The now-abandoned kill of 50 humpbacks was to be the first in 40 years. Besides Japan, Norway and Iceland are the only other countries who continue to hunt whales.

Source AFP

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Anti-whaling protesters gather outside a ministry building in Tokyo where members of the International Whaling Commission were meeting on Feb. 13, 2007. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)   (Associated Press)
Japan's Fisheries Agency chief Shuji Yamada delivers a speech at the departure ceremony at Shimonoseki, Japan, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007. A Japanese whaling fleet left port Sunday on a hunt that was to include...   (Associated Press)
Crew members of Japanese whaling ships raise cans of beer for a toast during a departure ceremony in Shimonoseki, southwestern Japan, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007. Four ships, including the 8,044-ton mother...   (Associated Press)
In this photo released by Greenpeace, a tugboat pushes the 8,044-ton Nisshin Maru, the mother ship of Japanese whaling fleet, as it leaves Shimonoseki Port in Yamaguchi Prefecture (state), western Japan,...   (Associated Press)
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