Japan drops plans to hunt humpback whales

Deutsche Welle reports:

Japan has dropped its plans to kill humpback whales amid strong protests from Western countries led by Australia. Japan had planned to harpoon around 50 humpbacks on its current Antarctic expedition, the first time since the 1960s that Tokyo would have hunted the species. However, the country is still going ahead with its expedition in the Antarctic, which plans to kill nearly 1,000 other whales, mostly of the smaller minke species.