People who work with whales say, “when you look into their eyes, you know somebody is home.”

Ever since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated with whales – for a while I thought I might be a marine biologist, simply to be able to spend my days watching them.

And for years I hated knowing that they were still being killed under the guise of research – but yesterday Japan accepted a ruling by the International Court of Justice (from March 31) that ordered the country to halt its whaling program in the Antarctic Ocean.