Japan will send a whaling fleet to the Antarctic on Tuesday, the first such trip since the International Court of Justice's 2014 ruling that whale hunts aren't definitively necessary for scientific research, The Associated Press reports. But Tokyo's latest proposal to the International Whaling Commission argued killing the animals is necessary for collecting data on the maturing ages of whales.
Australia, which brought the international case against Japan last year, may send a boat to shadow the Japanese fleet. A group of 15 environmental and animal rights groups also oppose the move, writing in a statement: "We strongly demand that the government not start any new research whaling programs, and instead take on new measures that contribute to ocean conservation."
Japan's plan, as described Monday by government agencies, involves catching up to 333 minke whales each year for 12 years, with an evaluation halfway through. That's reportedly about one third of the whales Japan has killed in previous expeditions.
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