{"id":16652,"date":"2011-02-16T08:31:34","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T16:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=16652"},"modified":"2011-02-16T08:31:34","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T16:31:34","slug":"victory-at-sea-japan-suspends-antarctic-whaling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/victory-at-sea-japan-suspends-antarctic-whaling\/","title":{"rendered":"Victory at sea: Japan suspends antarctic whaling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Good news from the high seas: After repeated run-ins with the anti-whaling\u00a0Sea Shepherd Society<\/a> that have prevented its whaling fleet from a successful hunt, Japan’s government announced it is suspending whaling, possibly for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

Whaling was banned under an international agreement in 1986, but Japan has exploited a loophole in the law to maintain a subsidized whaling fleet that kills hundreds of whales a year “for scientific research purposes.”<\/p>\n

In recent years that has become harder, though, as international pressure mounted and the Sea Shepherd Society sent ships down to the Antarctic whaling grounds to get between the Japanese ships and their prey, as dramatically televised on Animal Planet\u2019s reality TV show “Whale Wars”.<\/p>\n

Last year only 506 minke whales were taken, far short of the 850 planned. And according to the Sea Shepherds, this year’s catch has been minimal.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah I think you can very well say this is a victory,\u201d Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson\u00a0told the\u00a0Wall Street Journal’s Japan Realtime blog <\/a>by satellite phone\u00a0from his vessel the Steve Irwin. \u201cThis is our best year yet. Every year we come down stronger and every year the whaling fleet comes down weaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the whole article at our sister site, Red Green and Blue<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good news from the high seas: After repeated run-ins with the anti-whaling\u00a0Sea Shepherd Society that have prevented its whaling fleet from a successful hunt, Japan’s government announced it is suspending whaling, possibly for the rest of the season. Whaling was banned under an international agreement in 1986, but Japan has exploited a loophole in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[40957,19284,25735,31077,37992],"spectra_custom_meta":{"dsq_thread_id":["507556911"],"_oembed_aa20535cb8511d381766a04c2f7b642f":["