Pro- and anti- whaling nations brace for battle
Pro- and anti-whaling nations are set for a showdown when the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets in Brazil from Monday as Japan leads an assault on a three-decade old moratorium on commercial whale hunting.
Tokyo heads into the biennial meeting as chair of the 88-nation body determined to shake-up what it says is a dysfunctional organization mired in dispute and unable to make key decisions.
But Japan's package of proposals, entitled "The Way Forward," has left conservationists seething even before delegates have taken their seats at the 67th IWC meeting in the Brazilian surfing resort of Florianopolis.
They say it's a blatant attempt to overturn the 1986 moratorium and restore commercial whaling. Brazil as host country is instead trying to rally anti-whaling nations behind a "Florianopolis Declaration," which insists that commercial whaling is no longer a necessary economic activity and would allow the recovery of all whale populations to pre-industrial whaling levels.
