TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese whaling ship has returned home to the country’s southwest after almost meeting its annual quota, ending its first commercial whaling season in 31 years.

Operator Kyodo Senpaku Co. says its main factory ship Nisshin Maru returned to its home port of Shimonoseki on Friday after catching 223 whales off the Japanese coast in the Pacific.

Japan resumed commercial whaling July 1 after leaving the International Whaling Commission, promising that the whalers would stay within the country’s exclusive economic waters.

Japan had conducted research hunts for 31 years in the Antarctic and the Northwest Pacific that conservationists criticized as a cover for commercial hunts banned by the IWC.

Opponents condemn Japan’s commercial whaling, but others question if the embattled whaling program can survive changing times and tastes.