Yahoo News 22 Dec 07;
Australia welcomed Saturday Japan's backdown on plans to hunt humpbacks but said it had still lodged a formal protest with Tokyo calling for an end to all whaling.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, whose centre-left government has stepped up pressure on Japan over whaling since it was elected last month, said Australia would continue to urge Tokyo to end its whaling program.
"The Australian government strongly believes that there is no credible justification for the hunting of any whales and will vigorously pursue its efforts, announced earlier this week, to see an end to whaling by Japan," Smith said in a statement.
Smith said Australia's ambassador to Japan on Friday night presented a formal diplomatic protest -- known as a demarche -- in Tokyo to mark the start of Japan's whaling season.
He said the protest, signed by 30 countries and the European Union, represented the largest international protest of its kind against Japanese whaling.
"The strength of international support for the diplomatic protest led by Australia shows that there is strong international concern over Japan's whaling program," he said.
Smith this week announced the government would honour an election pledge to try to stop whaling by sending a patrol boat and plane to monitor Japan's whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean.
Amid international concern led by Australia, Japan announced Friday that it was dropping plans to hunt up to 50 humpbacks, the first time Tokyo has backed down over one of its whaling expeditions.
Japan had planned to harpoon 50 humpback whales on its current expedition, the first time since the 1960s that Tokyo would have hunted the species, which are major attractions for Australian whale-watchers.
But chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura vowed the fleet en route to Antarctic waters would go ahead with its hunt of nearly 1,000 other whales, saying Australia and Japan had basic cultural differences on the issue.
Smith said that while Australia and Japan disagreed about whaling, it would not affect the continuing strength of the "warm and productive" relationship between the countries, which are military allies and major trading partners.
