HE United States is initiating closed-door negotiations that could open up new areas to whale hunting for the first time in decades, part of an attempt to end a long-standing stalemate over whaling limits with Japan.
The tentative plan seeks to achieve a breakthrough in the dispute that has raged since the International Whaling Commission voted in 1986 to ban commercial whaling.
Faced with the reality that Japan and its allies have continued to hunt whales and have succeeded in blocking new conservation efforts, the commission's chairman, William Hogarth - appointed by the former US president George Bush - was trying over the weekend to craft a pact that would permit a new type of "coastal whaling" in exchange for a commitment by Japan to scale back its "scientific" whale hunts.
But the proposal is running into stiff opposition from whaling opponents. In recent years, the commission, which requires a majority vote to take action, has been trapped between the anti- and pro-whaling camps. Rather than setting a clear direction for conserving and managing whale populations worldwide, its meetings have become contentious battles in which the two sides have competed for influence while little changed.
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http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-considers-whaling-tradeoff-with-japan/2009/01/25/1232818246359.htmlOne would hope that the Obama administration isn't going to sign off on this... this sort of deal is not going to make him many friends.
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