Japan Halts Whaling

After a weeks-long Sea Shepherd Conservation Society campaign against whale hunting, Japanese officials have announced that they are halting their annual whaling expedition in March. For two weeks, Sea Shepherd speedboats chased the Japanese whaling fleet, trying to blockade the ship’s ramp from taking on whales. While commercial whaling has been illegal since 1986, Japan harpoons whales each year as a part of a regulation that allows killing the animals for scientific research. Much of the meat from these annual hunts, however, ends up on the market for consumption. The whaling expedition had originally planned to kill up to 945 whales.