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KYODO

Whale meat auctions were held Thursday in different areas of Japan earlier this week, the first since the country ended its 31-year commercial whaling hiatus, with some cuts selling for over ¥10,000 per kilogram. A whaling fleet left Kushiro in Hokkaido on Monday to hunt in coastal waters and took two minke whales later the same day. Approximately 66 kilograms of meat from one of the two animals was then brought to Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, for the auction because a vessel from the whaling town was among the fleet.