Catch and cut

Japanese whalers cut open a Baird's beaked whale, their first catch of the season, which was caught some 60 kilometers (38 miles) off the coast, in Wada, Sunday.The whaling firm of Gaibo Hogei Corporation Ltd., is one of eight coastal whaling operations in Japan that hunt Beard's Beaked and Pilot whales, species not subject to the International Whaling Commission's 1986 ban on commercial whaling. The catch, measuring more than 10 meters in length, comes a week before the International Whaling Commission (IWC) are due to meet in Madeira, Portugal. (AP/Shuji Kajiyama)