WELLINGTON: The European Union and 12 other nations condemned Japan’s Antarctic whaling programme yesterday, rejecting Tokyo’s argument that the annual slaughter is for scientific research, reports AFP.

Japan’s whaling fleet left for the Southern Ocean last month, planning to kill 333 minke whales over a four-month period.

Its fisheries agency says the hunt is needed to study whale behaviour and biology, but critics say such lethal research is unnecessary and acts as a cover for commercial whaling.

“(We) jointly express... opposition to Japan’s continued so-called ‘scientific’ whaling in the Southern Ocean,” the EU and its allies said in a statement.

“We remain resolutely opposed to commercial whaling, in particular in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary established by the International Whaling Commission (IWC).”