Japan is dropping its plan to kill humpback whales in the seas off Antarctica, a media report said Friday. The Kyodo News agency report came hours after public broadcaster NHK said the government was considering a deal for Japan to remove humpbacks from its planned harvest of more than 1,000 whales this season in the South Pacific. Japan dispatched its whaling fleet last month to the southern Pacific in the first major hunt of humpback whales since the 1960s, generating widespread criticism. Commercial hunts of humpbacks have been banned worldwide since 1966.
