Ha Ha! Japan suddenly backs off on hunting humpbacks

The Aussies are packing what? 

Excerpt BBC report "Japan drops humpback whale hunt": 

A controversial Japanese mission to hunt humpback whales in the Antarctic has been temporarily abandoned, a top government official says.

Nobutaka Machimura said the humpback hunt would not go ahead - although the fleet is still expected to kill about 1,000 other whales in the area.

The BBC's Chris Hogg, in Tokyo, says Japan is now unlikely to hunt the humpbacks for at least a year.

The move comes after pressure from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

And maybe after it was announced that an Australian marine control vessel will be following them around checking out whether they are doing anything illegal, like hunting humpbacks.  (The Aussie boat is equipped with two .50 caliber machine guns as I learned from Environmental Graffiti. And suddenly the arrogance of the whalers has melted like an iceberg off Hawaii.)  

Excerpt2:

Japan says whaling is necessary for scientific research, but other countries say the same goals could be achieved using non-lethal techniques.

Robert at Environmental Graffitti has more on this story too, including Japan actually making nice over the incident with Australia.

You mean they aren't going to bite Australia's head off.  The continent nation is probably their biggest trading partner. If the Bush administration stood up a bit more they'd find the Japanese more willing to listen to reason. 

tags: japan  japanese whaling fleet  japanese whalers  humpback whales  australia  antarctica  

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