Japan has officially resumed commercial whaling today (July 1) after more than 30 years of limiting whale hunts to "scientific" purposes — a policy that still resulted in the deaths of hundreds of whales every year, Reuters.com reported.
In December 2018, Japan announced that it would withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on whale hunting, which began in 1985 to give endangered and overhunted whale species a chance to rebound.
Japan joined the compact in 1988, agreeing to only hunt whales for scientific purposes (such as collecting population data) — however, according to Reuters, the gesture did little to curb commercial whaling in Japan. From 1985 to 2017, Japanese vessels caught and killed nearly 17,000 whales, whose meat often ended up for sale in stores and restaurants after any research had concluded.
Today, Japan joins Iceland and Norway as the only nations to allow commercial whaling despite the IWC moratorium. Hunting will reportedly be limited to Japan's territorial sea and exclusive economic zone, which stretches about 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the nation's coasts, Reuters reported, and the nation will cease whaling in Antarctic waters.
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