explaining that a whale must be killed to obtain certain types of information, such as the collection of ear plugs to estimate the age of a whale. During the second week, Professor Lars Walløe, of the University of Oslo and a former Norwegian Commissioner to the Whaling Commission was presented by Japan as its sole expert witness. During the week beginning 8 July 2013, New Zealand delivered its intervention, in which it provided a history of the origin of the 1946 Whaling Convention and Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus affirmed that his nation had not "colluded" with New Zealand to launch the ICJ proceedings. Dreyfus concluded Australia's contribution by emphasising the friendship shared by Australia and Japan, and stated: "Australia respectfully requests the Court to bring Japan’s whaling program to an end." The ICJ hearing concluded on 16 July 2013. In Japan's final presentation Professor Payam Akhavan of Harvard University stated: "it would not be an exaggeration to say that Australia’s case now hangs by a thread". Outcome On 31 March 2014 the ICJ ruled that Japan's JARPA II whaling program "can broadly be characterized as “scientific research”" but failed to comply with three provisions of the Schedule to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The Court ordered that "Japan revoke any extant authorization, permit or licence to kill, take or treat whales in relation to JARPA II, and refrain from granting any further permits under Article VIII, paragraph 1, of the Convention, in pursuance of that programme". The court's judges agreed with Australia that the number of Japanese scientific research publications were not proportionate to the number of animals killed. Two former Australian Environment ministers, Peter Garrett and Ian Campbell, among other Australian politicians applauded the decision and stated their hopes that Japan will respect it. The decision of the ICJ is final and the right of appeal does not apply in this context; Japan said it would abide by the decision. References External links IWC page on the Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuaries Successes and Failures of the IWC (WWF) I was there: how the Southern Ocean Sanctuary came to be (Greenpeace) Geography of the Southern Ocean Whale sanctuaries