The science of wrong.

"Practices are not prohibited because they are wrong, they are wrong because they have been prohibited."

~ Prof. Leslie A.White, The Science of Culture (New York, Farrar, Strauss and Cudahy, 1949)

Now.
This brings us to the Japanese saying they may lower their kill quota, then not, then maybe. Well... theres a very good reason why they may lower it and it has nothing to do with external pressure.

Rather it is because the kill fleet has lost their fuel re-supply and meat off-loading ship (The Oriental Bluebird) because it was busted doing illegal things & fined the maximum penalty and then de-flagged.

That and the fact that last year the Japanese didnt get any of the enormous endangered Fin whales, but only because they didnt find any. A Finwhale is a massive animal, the second largest ever, smaller only than a blue whale. So its doubtful they themselves expect to find and kill 50 Finwhales. Then again they have already killed 100 of the only slightly smaller sei whales Balaenoptera borealis and they did get 50 of the rare and fast bryde's whales Balaenoptera brydei so it is possible. Even so Finwhales, like brydes, sei and the kings the Blue whales are the most massive creatures. To kill and process is a major undertaking and conditions need to be right

Still the kill fleet includes 8 powerful fast hunter killer boats and a massive floating factory mother ship. This is a large kill mission, the largest of great whales on the planet.

So all the talk by the Japanese of dropping some of their tally in exchange for some sneaky change may all be a bluff, but it matters not. The kill fleet may only be setup to take at max half the butcher list, but if all goes to plan they won't get a single whale.

The anti-whaling crew will never give up.
Never.