News Service from House Harris

JPN: Japan says to spare humpback whales again

A Japanese official says a newspaper report claiming the country's reducing its whaling quota this year is wrong.

But he says it'll again spare humpback whales from its annual Antarctic hunt .. in the face of strong protests by Australia and environmentalists.

Last season Japan planned to hunt humpbacks for the first time since the 1960s .. enraging Australia where the whales are a major tourist attraction.

HIDEAKI OKADA from Japan's Fisheries Agency says the country is maintainingits quota .. aiming to kill about one thousand whales this season.

Japan's annual hunt uses a loophole in a 1986 global whaling moratorium that allows lethal research on the ocean giants.

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