--- title: Japan Ordered To Stop Antarctic Whaling | TIME description: A United Nations court rules Japan must stop its whaling in the Antarctic, a major victory not just for Australia. The men and women who literally fought with whaling fleets at sea have been labeled everything from heroes to eco-terrorists. canonical: https://time.com/video/216avIFF/ og:title: Japan Ordered To Stop Antarctic Whaling og:description: A United Nations court rules Japan must stop its whaling in the Antarctic, a major victory not just for Australia. The men and women who literally fought with whaling fleets at sea have been labeled everything from heroes to eco-terrorists. og:url: https://time.com/video/216avIFF/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/216avIFF/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Japan Ordered To Stop Antarctic Whaling twitter:description: A United Nations court rules Japan must stop its whaling in the Antarctic, a major victory not just for Australia. The men and women who literally fought with whaling fleets at sea have been labeled everything from heroes to eco-terrorists. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/216avIFF/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Japan Ordered To Stop Antarctic Whaling > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Japan Ordered To Stop Antarctic Whaling [Watch (HLS stream): Japan Ordered To Stop Antarctic Whaling](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/216avIFF.m3u8) (2:11)  _Published 2014-03-31. A United Nations court rules Japan must stop its whaling in the Antarctic, a major victory not just for Australia. The men and women who literally fought with whaling fleets at sea have been labeled everything from heroes to eco-terrorists._ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:21 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Japan Says It Is Leaving an International Whaling Body to Resume Commercial Hunts](/video/uF4CqrkB/) ### Japan Says It Is Leaving an International Whaling Body to Resume Commercial Hunts [122 Pregnant Minke Whales Killed in Japan's Whale Hunt Last Summer](/video/6C060qQG/) ### 122 Pregnant Minke Whales Killed in Japan's Whale Hunt Last Summer [How to Photograph a Whale](/video/2GUJJOs5/) ### How to Photograph a Whale --- ## Transcript A United Nations court rules Japan must stop its whaling in the Antarctic. A major victory for the men and women some have called heroes, while Japan has called them environmental terrorists. A warning, some of the images in this story can be considered graphic. The International Court of Justice has ordered Japan to stop hunting whales in the Antarctic. It's ruled that its whaling program is not for scientific research and is illegal. The activists say the whales were caught within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The sanctuary was set up by the International Whaling Commission in 1994 to protect whales. While Japan was part of a moratorium on whaling, it continued harvesting whales form the Antarctic under provisions that allow for scientific research. Whale meat is considered a delicacy by some in Japan. And opponents, like Australia, said profits from selling the meat were the true reason behind the whaling. Other opponents have been vocal and unapologetically extreme in their efforts to stop whaling fleets from hunting. While Greenpeace activists first started getting worldwide attention for the clashes with whalers at sea, the Animal Planet show Whale Wars profiled the environmentalist group, Sea Shepard, which has made it clear it would resort to whatever tactics necessary to protect whales. [ SOUND ] That's included both sides launching projectiles, ships colliding, and even one ship's destruction, all of which each side has blamed the other for. Sea Shepard leader Paul Watson predicted in January, Japanese whaling fleets would have their worst whaling season since opponents began facing off at sea. Last year they took less than 10 % of their quota. I think we're gonna do even better this year. Year before that 17 %. We've saved well over 6, 000 whales in the last few years and we've cost them hundreds of millions of dollars. Predictably, Sea Shepherd hailed the court's decision over Twitter. The BBC reports Japan said it would abide by the ruling. But the country added, it regrets and is deeply disappointed by the decision. The Guardian notes this doesn't mean an end to whaling. Japan hunts a much smaller number of whales in the northern Pacific, while Norway and Iceland continue to kill whales for their commercial value, in defiance of the IWC ban. Thanks for watching, I'm Megan Judy. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Japan Ordered To Stop Antarctic Whaling","description":"A United Nations court rules Japan must stop its whaling in the Antarctic, a major victory not just for Australia. 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