TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s whaling fleet returned on Friday from its months-long Antarctic hunt in the name of scientific research with a take of more than 300 minke whales, a hunt that prompted complaints from Australia. 
 
 Japanese whaling vessel the Nisshin Maru returns to the Shimonoseki port in southwestern Japan in this photo taken by Kyodo on March 31, 2017, after it and two other vessels hunted 333 minke whales in the Antarctic Ocean. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS 
 
 The International Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that Japan should halt Antarctic whaling and Japan suspended its hunt for one season to re-tool its whaling program, including measures such as cutting the number of whales and species targeted. 
 
 It resumed hunting in the 2015-2016 season. 
 
 The final ships of the five-vessel whaling fleet returned to the southwestern port of Shimonoseki, having achieved their goal of 333 minke whales, the Fisheries Agency said. 
 
 “Since a majority of both the males and females taken were mature, this indicates that the species is reproducing healthily,” it added in a statement. 
 
 Japan intends to take nearly 4,000 whales over the next 12 years as part of its research program and has repeatedly said its ultimate goal is the resumption of commercial whaling. 
 
 Shimonoseki, a major whaling port, is in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s electoral district. 
 
 Japan, which has long maintained that most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of its culture, began what it calls “scientific whaling” in 1987, a year after an international whaling moratorium took effect. 
 
 The meat ends up on store shelves, even though most Japanese no longer eat it. 
 
 Japan has shrugged off repeated international protests, including those from key ally the United States. In January, Australia said it was “deeply disappointed” that Japan had continued its hunt, just days after Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had discussed it with Abe. 
 
 The Humane Society International (HSI), an animal protection organization, condemned the most recent hunt. 
 
 “There is no robust scientific case for slaughtering whales,” said Kitty Block, HSI executive vice president, in a statement ahead of the fleet’s return. 
 
 “Commercial whaling in this, or any other disguise, does not meet any pressing human needs and should be relegated to the annals of history.” 

 This article is over 1 year old 
 
 Whaling fleet returns to port after slaughtering hundreds of minke whales, in defiance of moratorium on hunting and global criticism 
 
 A Japanese whaling fleet returned to port on Friday after an annual Antarctic hunt that killed more than 300 of the mammals, as Tokyo pursues the programme in defiance of global criticism. 
 
 
 
 The fleet set sail for the Southern Ocean in November, with plans to slaughter 333 minke whales, flouting a worldwide moratorium and opposition led by Australia and New Zealand. 
 
 Japan to face criticism at international summit for flouting whaling ruling Read more 
 
 The fleet consisted of five ships, three of which arrived on Friday morning at Shimonoseki port in western Japan, the country’s Fisheries Agency said. 
 
 More than 200 people, including crew members and their families, gathered in the rain for a 30-minute ceremony in front of the Nisshin Maru, the fleet’s main ship, according to an official of the Shimonoseki city government. 
 
 In a press release, the agency described the mission as “research for the purpose of studying the ecological system in the Antarctic Sea”. 
 
 But environmentalists and the International Court of Justice (IJC) call that a fiction and say the real purpose is simply to hunt whales for their meat. 
 
 Anticipating the fleet’s return, animal protection charity Humane Society International called for an end to Japanese whaling. “Each year that Japan persists with its discredited scientific whaling is another year where these wonderful animals are needlessly sacrificed,” said Kitty Block, the group’s executive vice-president. 
 
 “It is an obscene cruelty in the name of science that must end.” 
 
 Japan also caught 333 minke whales in the previous season ending in 2016 after a one-year hiatus prompted by an IJC ruling, which said the hunt was a commercial venture masquerading as science and ordered Tokyo to end it. 
 
 Under the International Whaling Commission (IWC), to which Japan is a signatory, there has been a moratorium on hunting whales since 1986. 
 
 Tokyo exploits a loophole allowing whales to be killed for “scientific research” and claims it is trying to prove the population is large enough to sustain a return to commercial hunting. 
 
 But it also makes no secret of the fact that whale meat ends up on dinner tables and is served in school lunches. 
 
 Shrinking Arctic sea ice threatens the majestic Beluga whale Read more 
 
 Japan has hunted whales for centuries, and their meat was a key source of protein in the immediate post-second world war years, when the country was desperately poor. But consumption has dramatically declined in recent decades, with significant proportions of the population saying they “never” or “rarely” eat whale meat. 
 
 In response to the ICJ ruling, Japan’s 2014-15 mission carried out only “non-lethal research” such as taking skin samples and doing headcounts. 
 
 Past missions have been hampered by a confrontational campaign on the high seas by environmentalists Sea Shepherd. A fisheries agency official said that the whalers this time faced “no obstructive behaviour threatening safety of the fleet and crew members” by the group. 
 
 He attributed that partially to Japan dispatching patrol ships to protect the fleet. 

 A fleet of three whaling vessels returned to port in Japan on Friday with the carcasses of 333 minke whales harpooned in the Antarctic Ocean. 
 
 The fleet - the 8,145-ton Nisshin Maru, the only whaling factory ship in the world, and two catcher vessels - was greeted by relatives of the crew in the city of Shimonoseki, a traditional whaling community in south-west Japan. 
 
 The Fisheries Agency issued a statement in which it confirmed that the fleet had carried out its four-month mission to conduct "research for the purpose of studying the ecological system in the Antarctic Ocean". 
 
 Activists dispute that claim and say the annual hunt is thinly disguised commercial whaling because the whale meat is later sold in supermarkets or served up in school dinners.
– Japan's annual Antarctic whale hunt killed 333 whales this year, the AFP reports. The five-ship whaling fleet set out in November and returned to port Friday with the minke whale carcasses. The country's Fisheries Agency says the mission was necessary for "research for the purpose of studying the ecological system in the Antarctic Sea," but critics say Japan is simply hunting whales for meat, even though the practice of eating whale meat has dropped off sharply in the country. Environmentalists and animal rights groups are once again calling for an end to the whaling practice. Japan is a signatory to the International Whaling Commission, which put a moratorium on hunting whales starting in 1986, but Tokyo claims that because whales are allowed to be killed for scientific research purposes, its hunts are legit; the country justifies the consumption of whale meat by explaining that the meat is simply a byproduct of the research and must be used. An International Court of Justice ruling ordered Tokyo to end the practice, leading to Japan killing no whales in the 2014-15 season, but 333 whales were killed during the 2015-16 season after Japan "re-tooled" the program, per Reuters. The EU has officially come out against Japan's whale hunt, and the US Congress is preparing a resolution calling for its end, reports the Telegraph.