UN Court Puts Kibosh on Japan's Whale Hunt

Australia 1, Japan 0: The UN's International Court of Justice today ruled that Japan's whaling program, which it has long claimed is for scientific purposes, is just a cloak for commercial whaling, the BBC reports, in a case that Australia brought about back in 2010. The 16-judge panel ordered a temporary halt to the program—which kills around 1,000 whales a year—until it is revised, the Sydney Morning Herald adds. Australia "has politicized science in order to impose Australian values on Japan in disregard for international law," Japan's counsel had argued.

In announcing the decision, ICJ Judge Peter Tomka said Japan's program was "not driven by scientific considerations," and "there is no evidence that Japan conducted research into how non-lethal methods could be used to achieve its stated research objectives," the Guardian reports. Though commercial whaling was banned in 1986, the meat from Japan's whaling venture, known as JARPA II, is sold commercially. The AP notes Norway and Iceland are among those to still hunt whales, despite the commercial ban.