Japan resumed commercial whaling on Monday after a 31-year hiatus.
Japanese vessels have long conducted whaling for research purposes in the Antarctic Ocean and northwestern Atlantic Ocean, seeking to collect ecological data on whales. The government will now permit commercial whaling within Japan's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.
The Fishery Agency on Monday announced that it will allow a maximum 383 whales to be caught per year.
On Monday morning, a fleet led by the Nisshin Maru whaling mothership set out from Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, to a fishing ground. Another group of five whaling vessels from the Japan Small-Type Whaling Association departed from a port in Kushiro, Hokkaido.
The agency allows only minke, Bryde's and sei whales to be caught. Up to 171 minke whales, 187 Bryde's whales and 25 sei whales will be allowed to be captured.
The agency will allow up to 227 whales to be caught commercially this year, a figure calculated by deducting the number of whales captured for research purposes this year from 383.
The upper limit was calculated based on an International Whaling Commission formula, and "is intended to ensure there is no impact on the whale population, even if whaling were to continue for 100 years," the agency said.
The 383 figure is about 60 percent of the 637 whales caught annually for research.
Unlike with research whaling, however, commercial whalers have discretion over the size and sex of whales they catch.
To ensure regulations are enforced, the agency requires all whaling operators to report the number of whales they catch every day. The agency will also send its inspectors to whale processing and other facilities, and tracks the movements of whaling vessels by satellite.
In 1982, the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling, citing a decline in the whale population due to overhunting.
Japan suspended commercial whaling activities in 1988 and instead began research whaling. In December of last year, the government decided to withdraw from the IWC effective Sunday.
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