Japan accepts ban on whaling

The BBC has an article about the Japanese, bowing to the inevitable:

The UN's International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that the Japanese government must halt its whaling program in the Antarctic.
It agreed with Australia, which brought the case in May of 2010, that the program was not for scientific research, as claimed by Tokyo. Australia argued that the program was commercial whaling in disguise.
Japan said it would abide by the decision, but added it "regrets and is deeply disappointed by the decision". While the court's decision is considered legally binding, Japan had argued that the suit brought by Australia was an attempt to impose its cultural norms on Japan.
Reading out the judgement, Presiding Judge Peter Tomka said the court had decided, by twelve votes to four, that Japan should withdraw all permits and licenses for whaling in the Antarctic and refrain from issuing any new ones.
It said Japan had caught some thirty-six hundred minke whales since its current program began in 2005, but the scientific output was limited.
Japan signed up to a moratorium on whaling in 1986, but continued whaling in the north and south Pacific under provisions that allowed for scientific research. Norway and Iceland rejected the provision and continued commercial whaling. The meat from the slaughtered whales is sold commercially in Japan.
Japan has clashed repeatedly with Australia and some other western countries, which strongly oppose whaling on conservation grounds. Japan has argued that minke whales and a number of other species are plentiful and that its whaling activities are sustainable.
A spokesman for Greenpeace UK, Willie MacKenzie, welcomed the ICJ's decision.
"The myth that this hunt was in any way scientific can now be dismissed once and for all," he said.

Rico says the Sea Shepherd folks (who provided the photo of the whaling ship above) should be allowed to hunt whalers...