Japanese whale hunters kill 122 pregnant minke

Animal rights activists have expressed outrage after a report on Japan’s “scientific whaling” programme showed that more than two thirds of the female minke whales harpooned in the Southern Ocean earlier this year were pregnant, a total of 122.

The report, submitted to the International Whaling Commission earlier this month, also showed that 53 of the 333 whales killed were juveniles.

Activists have accused Tokyo of ignoring the 2014 UN ruling made to stop Japan’s “commercial” whaling.