Australia has fined a Japanese whaling firm $1 million for persevering with its unlawful whale hunts within the Australian whale sanctuary within the Southern Ocean regardless of a court docket order ordering it to cease. 

The $1 million high-quality was handed down in Australian federal court docket as a part of a contempt case in opposition to the Japanese whaling firm Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha. 

The court docket discovered that the whaling firm continued to hunt and kill a number of whales within the Australian Whale  over the course of 4 seasons regardless of a 2008 injunction ordering the corporate to cease its unlawful practices.

The 2008 injunction was imposed following an utility by the Humane Society International (HSI).

The verdict was handed down the assistance of an affidavit supplied by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s Captain Peter Hammarstedt that was submitted as proof within the case.

With the Federal Court handing out the high-quality, Sea Shepherd is now calling on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to make sure that Japan’s unlawful whaling operations are on the high of the agenda of his go to to Japan this December.

“The onus for stopping Japan from returning to Antarctica to slaughter whales this year now lies directly with the Australian government. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull must ensure that Australia’s stance against whaling in the Southern Ocean is a priority in his upcoming discussions with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinz? Abe. To do otherwise would be to lose the faith of the Australian people who are so passionately committed to the protection of the whales,” stated Hammarstedt.

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