Japanese whalers hint at plans to resume hunts after UN court ban

The group that conducts Japan's whaling says it expects to resume scientific whaling in the Antarctic, after this year's hunt was cancelled following an order by an international court.

Last month the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered a halt to Japan's decades-old programme of "scientific whaling" in the Southern Ocean, a practice environmentalists condemn, and Tokyo said it would abide by the decision and has cancelled the 2014-15 hunt.

But court papers filed in the United States by the Institute for Cetacean Research, which, with Kyodo Senpaku, actually carries out the whaling, said they expected to conduct hunts in future seasons on a modified programme.

In the filing in a Seattle court last week, the two groups sought an injunction against Sea Shepherd, an environmental group that has pursued Japan's whaling ships during their Antarctic hunts over the past few years. They noted that the Japanese government had not granted permits for the next season.

"Plaintiffs expect they will be conducting a Southern Ocean research programme for subsequent seasons that would be in accord with the ICJ decision," according to the papers.

An institute spokesman declined to comment, saying any decisions to resume whaling would be for the government.