Another close call for the whaling moratorium.

• Author: Herro, Alana
• Position: International Whaling Commission - Brief article

At the 58th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in June, member countries voted 33 to 32 in favor of a resolution declaring the international ban on commercial whaling "no longer necessary." As in previous years, however, conservation-minded nations backed by public opinion managed to prevent the resolution from winning the two-thirds majority necessary to overturn the 1986 ban.

Three nations persist in whaling despite the ban. Japan exploits a loophole in the IWC rules that allows hunting whales for "scientific" purposes and practices large-scale whaling even within so-called whale sanctuaries. Norway and Iceland whale under a formal objection to the IWC moratorium. In total, more than 24,000 whales have been killed since 1985, and catch numbers continue to grow.

Japan typically is most heavily condemned for its whaling practices because of the size and scope of its operations, but in April the United Kingdom led a coalition of 12 countries in formally opposing Norway's whaling...