Japan hunts fin whales, first since exiting International Whaling Commission

Japan has hunted at least 25 fin whales, for the first time since Tokyo withdrew from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 2019.

The fin whales were hunted in the Sea of Okhotsk, north of the northern island of Hokkaido, and shipped to Sendai Port in Miyagi province on Monday, Kyodo News reported.

It added that of 320 tons of fin whale meat, some 1.6 tons will be transported to six markets across the country, including Tokyo and Osaka, as raw meat.

After resuming commercial fishing since withdrawing from the commission in 2019, the Japanese Fisheries Agency added fin whales to its list of commercial whaling target species last year.

It has set a quota of 60 to be hunted this year.

Japan resumed commercial whaling in July 2019, ending its over 60-year membership in the IWC after advocating whale hunting throughout the world for decades.

The IWC had declined Japan's proposal to resume commercial whaling of abundant species in September 2018.

Although Tokyo suspended commercial whaling in 1988, Japanese whaling ships remained active in international waters hunting whales for "research purposes," leading to international criticism as a cover for commercial whale hunting.

Separately, an auction for squids in Japan's northern Hokkaido island was halted for the first time ever due to a lack of squid catch during the season's initial fishing, according to the daily The Mainichi.

The Japanese flying squid fishing season in southern Hokkaido began on June 1, but the auction planned for early Monday was canceled due to a lack of enough catch.