Japan ended its whaling season this week after catching less than one third of its allotment under international law. Japan’s Fisheries Agency blamed anti-whaling activists and weather for the season’s total of 267 whales, well short of the country’s 900-whale quota. Sabotage by one anti-whaling group, Sea Shepherd, included throwing stink bombs at whaling boats and tangling their propellers with rope. “I think it’s been a very successful campaign,” Sea Shepard President Paul Watson said. Japan is allowed to hunt whales for scientific research, although commercial whaling has been illegal since the 1980s. Similar harassment by environmental groups last year forced Japan to after 172 catches.
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