To highlight its unhappiness with Japan’s decision to expand whale hunting in the North Pacific, the U.S. said yesterday that it will boycott two international environmental meetings being hosted over the next two weeks in Japan, cancel a meeting between U.S. and Japanese fisheries officials, and oppose the choice of Japan as the location for a meeting next year of the International Whaling Commission. The U.S. said it is also considering economic sanctions against Japan. In addition to expanding its hunt of minke whales, Japan said earlier this year that it will hunt sperm and Bryde’s whales for the first time in 13 years. The country contends that its hunts are conducted for scientific research and thus do not violate an international moratorium on commercial whaling.
