Jun 21, 2009, 7:29 GMT
Lisbon - Environmentalists have vowed to fight what they see as attempts to extend commercial whaling at a five-day meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) on the Portuguese island of Madeira starting Monday.
'The future of the IWC is at stake,' campaigners say.
If Japan were allowed to practise 'coastal' whaling, 'that would amount to lifting the commercial whaling ban that has been in force since 1986,' Sandra Altherr of the organization Pro Wildlife told the German Press Agency dpa.
The IWC, which comprises 85 countries, will gather for its 61st annual meeting after attempting for years to agree on definitive rules on whale hunting and conservation.
Norway and Iceland are currently the only countries that officially allow commercial whaling.
Japan allows whale hunting only for scientific purposes, a practice that critics see as a cover-up for commercial whaling, given that whale meat not used for study purposes is sold for consumption.
Up to 1,000 whales are killed annually for Japan's research programme.
Japan is now seeking permission to allow commercial whaling near its coast while scaling down the scientific hunt.
The deal under discussion also foresees the eventual creation of a whale protection area in the southern Atlantic, an idea environmentalists see as nonsensical, because the current moratorium on whaling established the entire world as a protective zone.
Such a deal would be a 'farce,' says Nicolas Entrup of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).
Japan is not the only country seeking to modify its whaling rights at the Madeira congress.
Denmark is trying to muster support among European Union countries for Greenland to be allowed to hunt 50 humpback whales in five years to feed its population.
In reality, Denmark is trying to reintroduce commercial whaling to its autonomous territory, which already has so much whale meat that all of it does not get eaten, critics say.
The humpback whale population plunged before a moratorium was put in place more than four decades ago.
Environmentalists accuse countries favouring whale protection of passivity, fearing that the congress will reach no key agreements, as happened in Chile in 2008.
'That would give a terrible signal to the public opinion,' Altherr said.
Entrup pins his hopes on new US President Barack Obama.
It was under pressure from the George W Bush administration that concessions were made to whaling countries, he says.
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