The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute (EII), supported by 27 other environmental and animal welfare organizations, has issued a challenge to the International Olympics Committee to ban products of whales and dolphins from being offered or sold at the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“The Olympics are about fair play and international cooperation,” stated David Phillips, IMMP director. “The Japanese hunters’ ways of killing these intelligent, social animals is anything but fair, and the Japan Fisheries Agency has for years flaunted international efforts to protect whales and dolphins."

“Indeed, the International Court at the Hague has ruled against Japan’s whaling practices in Antarctica, calling on Japan to end the hunts,” Phillips added, “and the International Whaling Commission has repeatedly condemned Japan’s whaling and slaughter of dolphins.”

The letter cites the Olympic Committee’s own policy of humane treatment of animals.

IMMP and other groups have previously sent letters to Japanese prime minister Abe, urging him to end dolphin and whale hunting in keeping with the spirit of the Olympics.