TOKYO – A small Japanese fleet caught their first whales on Monday in Japan’s first commercial hunt in more than three decades, a move that has aroused global condemnation and fears for the fate of whales.
Japan has long said few whale species are endangered and announced in December it was leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume hunting after years of campaigns by industry supporters and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose constituency includes a city that has long whaled.
“If we had more whale available, we’d eat it more,” said Sachiko Sakai, a 66-year-old taxi driver in Kushiro, a gritty port city on the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, where five whaling ships were waved out of harbor in a brief ceremony early on Monday. (Reuters)
