Japan is facing heated criticism from conservationists after a report revealed that its whaling vessels killed 333 Antarctic minke whales in the Southern Ocean last summer, purportedly for the sake of scientific research. Meeting papers released by the International Whaling Committee (IWC) this week reveal that Japan slaughtered 333 whales in Antarctic waters during the 2017/18 austral season - apparently, all in the name of "scientific research". “The whales often get used for pet food.’’

The IWC report, written by employees of the Institute of Cetacean Research in Tokyo, the Kyodo Senpaku fishing company and Tokyo University, said the whales were killed to obtain data on the “age, sexual maturity and body length of the whales’’. Killing the whales in this brutal fashion is apparently necessary, researchers said, as “age information can be obtained only from internal earplugs and therefore only through lethal sampling methods.”

The researchers wanted to acquire data on the size, age, blubber and stomach content of minke whales in the South Ocean between Australia and Antarctica “to estimate prey composition and consumption.” Fat weight, blubber thickness and girth all are supposedly required to study the animal’s nutritional condition. "It is further demonstration, if needed, of the truly gruesome and unnecessary nature of whaling operations, especially when non-lethal surveys have been shown to be sufficient for scientific needs," said Alexia Wellbelove, the Humane Society International senior program manager, reports the Sunday Morning Herald. “It is further demonstration, if needed, of the truly gruesome and unnecessary nature of whaling operations, especially when non-lethal surveys have been shown to be sufficient for scientific needs,” said Alexia Wellbelove, the senior program manager for Humane Society International. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Wellbelove stressed that Australia, along with other countries against whaling, should send the "the strongest possible message to Japan that it should stop its lethal whaling programs." According to website The Conversation, NEWREP-A, also known as New Scientific Whale Research Program in the Antarctic Ocean, was established in November 2014 in an effort to replace its previous whaling program, JARPA II.
A consortium led by the Institute of Cetacean Research, which is linked to Japan's Ministry of Fisheries, reports that 333 Antarctic minke whales were killed in last summer's scientific survey. 122 of the whales were pregnant, and 114 immature.