Commercial whaling resumption possible -Australia

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Anti-whaling nations will struggle to
stop a resumption of commercial whaling when the International
Whaling Commission votes on the issue in June, Australian
Environment Minister Ian Campbell said on Thursday.

Campbell said whaling nation Japan secured majority support
at the last IWC meeting in South Korea in June 2005 for its
plan to resume commercial whaling, but that not all the
countries in favor turned up to the vote, so the proposal was
knocked down.

“I really do think there’s a serious chance that Iceland,
Norway and Japan will have the numbers to defeat our
pro-conservation majority we achieved last year in Korea,”
Campbell told reporters.

“We are working very hard to stop that from happening.”

In 1986, the IWC imposed a blanket moratorium on whaling,
but Japan began what it calls scientific whaling the following
year. Norway broke the moratorium in 1993 and is currently the
only nation to permit open commercial whaling.

Iceland, like Japan, conducts scientific whaling. These
whaling states say whaling is a cherished part of their
culture.

The IWC next meets in the West Indies.