JAPAN: Japan lost the first battle in a war to turn back years of anti-hunting agreements at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) yesterday, when countries rejected its motion to hold votes in secret.
Conservation groups, which accuse Japan of enticing developing countries to join the body and vote with it, welcomed the outcome which indicated the majority of the 57 members were still opposed to whaling.
Anti-whalers say secret votes would let countries proclaim their opposition to whaling in public while cutting backroom deals to let it happen.
Japan, which views whaling as a noble tradition and whale meat as a prized delicacy, lost the vote 29 to 24, with a handful of states barred from voting for administrative reasons.
Japan and other whaling states like Norway and Iceland want to overturn a ban on commercial whaling the IWC imposed in 1986. The body was created in 1946 to control what was then a global industry, and ensure whales were not hunted to extinction.
Japan believes there are plenty of some species of whales. A Japanese delegate said if the IWC does not replace the moratorium with a system of sustainable whaling quotas by this time next year, it will quit the group.
To make its point, it tabled a provocative request to catch 2,914 minke whales from the Antarctic Ocean - declared a whale sanctuary by the IWC.
It says the annual quota would be just 0.05 per cent of the population, and no threat to the species. But at current market prices it would be worth up to $300 million. Japan already kills 440 minkes there a year under a clause allowing scientific research, and the meat ends up in restaurants fetching $50 million.
The request has no chance of being granted as it needs 75 percent of the votes, but it sets a direct challenge to the IWC to allow whaling to resume if it can be shown to be sustainable.