Japanese Whale Quota - It was announced on Tuesday that Japan will reduce the whale hunting quota by a third than it was previously doing.
The reason behind such a choice was the fact that UN intervened and complained about Japan's activities.
The International Court of Justice ruled in March that Japan was not hunting whales in Antarctic waters due to "research" and "scientific means," but rather used that reason as a façade to hunt whales and sell their meat, Time noted.
Before said ruling, Japan was hunting a quantity which was close to the 900 whales per season. The case was brought to the International Court by Australia and backed by New Zealand as well.
They argued the fact that the Japanese were using the whale hunting for commercial means rather than any sort of research and Australia, especially, doesn't support any hunting or killing for scientific research.
"Australia is of the view that lethal scientific research is not necessary. All information necessary for the contemporary conservation and management of whales can be obtained non-lethally," said Greg Hunt, Australia's environment minister, and The Guardian reported.
Supporting this view, Patrick Ramage, the global whale program director for International Fund for Animal Welfare said that this plan should be "dead" already as it is outdated.
In current times, most countries agree that whale killing is not needed and the quota can be reduced even further.
Japan suspended its annual whale hunt this year and made a plan of twelve years calculating the quota. Basically, it'll be a 12-year program which would result in the total hunting and killing of 3,996 whales.
Japan also explained that they need to reach this number to obtain information on the age of population and a second reason is to set the safe levels of catch limits and also, to ensure sustainability, Discovery noted.
