Japan to resume Antarctic whaling next year in scaled down program

TOKYO – Japan plans to resume Antarctic whaling next year, but with fewer killings and involving only minke whale, revising a research program that was rejected by the U.N.'s top court.

The Antarctic whale hunt is one of two research whaling programs that Japan has conducted since a 1986 international ban on commercial whaling. In March, the International Court of Justice ruled the Antarctic program wasn't scientific as Japan claimed and must stop.

Japan's Fisheries Agency said Wednesday that officials were working on a new program for fiscal 2015 on, for submission to the International Whaling Commission's scientific committee around November. The agency did not give details.

Japan will go to the Antarctic later this year, but only for nonlethal research.

Opponents say Japan's research hunt is a cover for commercial whaling.