After years of protesting the Japanese whale hunt, Humane Society International (HSI) won its lawsuit today when the Australian Federal Court ruled that the Japanese whaling company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha is in breach of Australian Law by killing whales in Australian waters that are designated as a whale sanctuary.
The Antarctic sanctuary—created in 2000 by Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act—is where Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha (the company that owns the Japanese whaling fleet) kills 90 percent of the whales the Japanese government has authorized it to hunt. Since 2000, Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha has killed 1,253 whales in the sanctuary.
This historic ruling marks the first time that Japan has been taken to domestic court to account for its illegal whaling program. HSI hopes that Japan will take this as a cue to end the gruesome whaling process once and for all.
