Japan has decided to extend its “scientific” whaling program to the hunting of humpback whales.

The new hunt is certain to renew Japan’s angry standoff with antiwhaling forces. Greenpeace and the animal rights activist group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have said they will track Japan’s hunt in the South Pacific.

(Did anyone read the New Yorker profile of Sea Shepherd head Paul Watson?

Watson believes in coercive conservation, and for several decades he has been using his private navy to ram whaling and fishing vessels on the high seas. Ramming is his signature tactic, and it is what he and his crew intended to do to the Japanese fleet, if they could find it.

Watson’s clearly a little nutty, but after reading the piece, I decided I’m glad that he does what he does.)

In addition to being a creature of enormous beauty and intelligence, as research into whale songs is showing, the humpback is a particularly popular spotting for whale-watchers. (Did you know that whale songs, which can last hours, have been found to contain elements of grammar and that whales have been found to sing in dialects?)

Japan has also decimated the world’s supply of tuna (though all those Americans who have hopped on to the sushi bandwagon aren’t helping).

It’s appalling that Japan hunts any whales at all. But slaughtering humpbacks? This is not something a great nation should lower itself to.