Japan’s whaling fleet returned after an annual Antarctic hunt during which it killed 333 whales, ABC News reports.

According to Tokyo, the hunt was for ecological research, a “research for the purpose of studying the ecological system in the Antarctic Sea”. However, the International Court of Justice ruled earlier that it was a cover for commercial whaling because the meat was sold.

The environmentalists and animal protection charity Humane Society International insisted to end Japanese whaling. “Each year that Japan persists with its discredited scientific whaling is another year where these wonderful animals are needlessly sacrificed,” Humane Society International executive VP Kitty Block said in a press release. “It is an obscene cruelty in the name of science that must end.”