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Off the coast of northern Japan, the Kangei Maru, a state-of-the-art whaling ship, hauled aboard a behemoth catch: a 56-tonne fin whale. The male whale, caught in early August 2024, was the first of its species to be hunted by Japanese whalers in 13 years.

The kill came less than two months after Japan confirmed it would resume the commercial hunt of fin whales—the latest offense in a decades-old, already controversial industry. Fin whales are the second largest whale species in the world and are vulnerable to extinction. Japan has a quota of 59 such animals this year, in addition to preexisting hunts for minke, Bryde’s, and sei whales.

Whaling in Japan began in the 12th century with hand-harpooning, according to the Japan Whaling Association. But by the 1900s, the practice was industrialized with harpoon guns and factory ships. As nations worldwide hunted blue, fin, and right whales to near extinction, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was created in 1946 to regulate the industry.

Number of commercially harvested whales by country. Catches dropped substantially after 1986, when the International Whaling Commission announced a moratorium on the industry. Graphic by Mark Garrison and Marina Wang, with data from the International Whaling Commission

In 1986, during a heightened environmental movement—20 years after whaling’s peak—the IWC imposed a global moratorium on commercial whaling. For member states, including Japan, the annual number of commercially harvested whales fell from 6,727 to 669 over two years.

But the year after the moratorium, in 1987, Japanese whalers found a workaround: they invoked an IWC article that authorized the harvesting of whales for scientific research. The move was widely condemned as a loophole for maintaining commercial whaling.

In 2010, Australia—later joined by New Zealand—lodged a complaint with the International Court of Justice against Japan’s scientific whaling program. After losing the case in 2014, Japan modified its science program and resumed whaling. The new program, however, failed to earn approval from the IWC’s scientific committee.

Number of commercially harvested whales by species. As of 2024, Japan will resume hunting fin whales. Graphic by Mark Garrison and Marina Wang, with data from the International Whaling Commission

More controversy ensued in 2019 when Japan pulled out of the IWC altogether and authorized commercial hunting within its 4.47-million-square-kilometer territorial waters and exclusive economic zone. The World Wildlife Fund condemned Japan’s decision to leave the IWC as a “nefarious precedent” and a threat to global conservation, adding that the nation’s so-called scientific whaling had killed more than 16,000 animals since 1987.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has asserted that, based on scientific evidence, its commercial whaling operations are sustainable and that the IWC has strayed from its founding mandate.

Lately, commercial harvesting of whales in Japan has taken a dip, with fewer than 300 animals killed in 2023. But the return of fin whales to the menu and the construction of a new whaling ship foreshadow more killing to come.