The International Whaling Commission on Thursday rejected a bid by Japan to resume commercial catches of minke whales in the Pacific Ocean.
Japan sought an exemption to the 19-year old moratorium on commercial catches to allow it to take 150 minkes a year from the Okhotsk Sea in the Pacific, northeast of Japan, but the proposal was voted down by 26 votes to 29.
The result fell well short of the three-quarters majority needed to pass the amendment and even of the simple majority that would have allowed Japan to claim broad support for the proposal.
At this year’s commission meeting in the South Korean former whaling port of Ulsan, Japan has lost a number of key votes seen as necessary for its push to end the 1986 moratorium and resume full-scale commercial catches.
However, conservationists have expressed fears that the pro-whaling lobby is increasing its support and is within reach of dominating the 66-member commission and controlling its agenda.
