The International Court of Justice in The Hague says Japan must halt its controversial annual whale hunt that has killed 3,600 Minke and other whales in the Southern Ocean since 2005, all in the name of biological research.  It’s a hard-fought win for Australia, which brought the case, and conservationists who say the program is just a cover for commercial whaling.

Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Noriyuki Shikata says his country “regrets and is deeply disappointed” by the decision, but “Japan will abide by the ruling of the court.”

The court found that Japan breached its international obligations by catching and killing the whales, and ordered Tokyo to immediately “revoke all whaling permits” and not issue any new ones under the existing program.  The research whaling, the court ruled, didn’t seem to put out much in the way of actual research.  Conservation groups are elated.

“We are very happy with the backing of the International Court,” said Sea Shepherd’s Geert Vons.  “We had never expected such a strong ruling.”

The clear and unequivocal ruling is final.  But it only affects the Southern Ocean hunt that has drawn the attention of Sea Shepherd Conservancy and other environmentalists.  Left alone are the smaller hunts that Japan carries out in the northern Pacific, and coastal whaling carried out on a smaller scale by local fishermen.  And there is the fear that Tokyo could always redesign its “scientific” hunt.

“It’s an important decision, but it also leaves the Japanese government a lot of leeway,” said Nanami Kurasawa, secretary general of IKAN, the Iruka to Kujira (Dolphin & Whale) Action Network.  “The Japanese government could start research whaling again but under a different name, and it would be out of the ruling’s purview.”