VOA常速英语2019--日本重启商业捕鲸惹众怒（在线收听）

This is commercial whaling. The International Whaling Commission or IWC banned the practice in 1986. Japan announced Wednesday it was leaving the IWC. We decided to resume commercial whaling from July 2019 and to withdrawal from the International Convention for the regulation of whaling.

这是非法捕鲸。国际捕鲸委员会（IWC）于1986年禁止非法捕鲸。日本周三宣布其将退出IWC。我们决定从2019年7月开始，重启商业捕鲸并退出IWC，不再受捕鲸法规的管制。

The decision quickly sparked criticism from Humane Society International which said Japan will be breaking international law. The International Whaling Commission agreed a global ban on all commercial whaling on the high seas and in countries’ coastal waters.

这一决定迅速受到了国际人道协会的批评。后者认为，日本此举会违反国际法。国际捕鲸委员会同意禁止公海和各国沿海水域的商业捕鲸行为。

Japan is rejecting that international law. What they will be doing is pirate whaling. And it should be condemned by the international community.

日本拒绝服从该项国际法。日本将要做的行为是海盗捕鲸，这种行为是会受到国际社会谴责的。

Japan unsuccessfully lobbied the IWC in September to resume commercial whaling. Countries that focus exclusively on the protection of whales did not agree to take any tangible steps towards reaching a common position.

日本曾于9月游说国际捕鲸委员会，想要重启商业捕鲸，但失败了。专注于保护鲸鱼的国家不同意采取任何实质性的措施来达成共识。

And it became obvious that it is not possible to seek the coexistence of states with different views, which led to this decision. Since the mid-1980s, Japan granted so-called scientific permits that served as a loophole in the whaling ban to research limited marine resources.

显而易见，在持不同意见的国家间寻求共处是不可能的，所以日本做了这个决定。自上世纪80年代以来，日本颁布了所谓的科学许可，利用了禁止捕鲸中的漏洞来掠夺有限的海洋资源。

Wednesday’s announcement to resume commercial whaling and set its own quotas instead of those agreed upon at the IWC puts Japan on a short list of countries that continue the outlawed practice.

日本周三宣布重启商业捕鲸并为自己设定配额的行为违反了国际捕鲸委员会的共识，这让一些国家将日本视为从事非法行动的国家。