SYDNEY, Nov 18 (Reuters) - An Australian federal court fined a Japanese whaling company
A$1 million ($709,400.00) on Wednesday for hunting and killing minke whales in an area deemed by the government to be a whale sanctuary.
Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd was ruled to have breached an injunction by killing the whales in waters off Antarctica, in a case brought by the animal rights advocacy group, Humane Society International.
The company was not represented in court. Japan has long maintained that most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of its food culture.
Kyodo was fined A$250,000 for each of the four seasons of whaling in Australian waters, presiding Judge Justice Jagot ruled.
Canberra created a sanctuary around the Australian Antarctic Territory in 1999, in which the hunting of dolphins and whales is banned.
But while all nations accept the conservation area 200 nautical miles (370 km) surrounding Australia and its external dependencies, only the United Kingdom, New Zealand, France and Norway recognise the sanctuary in the Antarctic area.
Michael Kennedy, director at Humane Society International urged Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to redouble diplomatic efforts with Japan to stop its whale hunting campaign.
"If the Japanese Government sanctions whaling in Antarctic waters by Kyodo again this year, as we fear it will, and Kyodo continues to ignore the 2008 injunction and the decision of the Federal Court today, it is critical that Australian Government raises this issue with the Japanese Government in the most forceful way possible," said Kennedy.
"We would also expect the Australian Government to assess what further legal options are open to it under international law."
($1 = 1.4096 Australian dollars)