Australia is taking Japan to the International Court of Justice in an effort to end the nation’s whaling in the Southern Hemisphere. Peter Garrett, Australia’s Environment Minister, says:
We want to see an end to whales being killed in the name of science in the Southern Ocean.
On a related matter, yesterday the Sea Shepherd’s Peter Bethune pled guilty to trespassing and destruction of property, in connection with his sneaking aboard a Japanese whaling vessel last February. Though Bethune is now facing fifteen years prison, it sounds as if the plea must be part of a deal for a greatly reduced sentence. Japan must surely know it stands to gain nothing politically by locking up Bethune. Link.
