Whaling states near power on panel

[Dover]

Whaling states near power on panel
The Associated Press, Reuters

TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2005


ULSAN, South Korea To the dismay of conservationists, pro-whaling countries appeared set to take a majority on Monday in the International Whaling Commission for the first time since a moratorium on whaling was imposed in 1986.

A Japanese proposal to delete discussion of whale sanctuaries from the five-day meeting's agenda was voted down 29-28 in what was seen as a test of whether whaling advocates had built a majority among the 66 members of the International Whaling Commission.

A majority would give pro-whaling countries broad authority to set the commission's agenda. However, it would still fall far short of the three-fourths vote required to overturn the moratorium on commercial whaling.

The Cambridge, England-based commission that regulates whaling banned commercial hunts in 1986, handing environmentalists a major victory in protecting species that were near extinction after centuries of whaling......cont'd

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/20/news/whale.php