nation International Whaling Commission (IWC) ended Friday producing a mixed outcome for supporters and opponents of whaling, dpa reported. At the five-day meeting in the Slovenian coastal town of Portoroz, delegates rejected a proposal to establish a large sanctuary for whales in the southern Atlantic Ocean. Backers of the sanctuary included Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay who argue that whale spotting attracts tourists. "The aim was a comprehensive approach to whale protection," said Andreas Dinkelmeyer of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. In addition, more measures were needed to tackle so-called ghost nets and collisions with ships that threaten whales. The failure for the sanctuary was not only because of lobbying from Japan and other whaling nations, said Germany's delegate. "There is the impression that Brazil did not do enough in the run-up to convince other countries of its concept," Andreas Christian Taeuber said. Japan, meanwhile, faces a stronger challenge in the future over its controversial scientific whale hunting programme. Tokyo has used an exemption in the 1946 international whaling convention to conduct scientific whaling and circumvent the commercial whaling moratorium. The IWC plenary approved a new working group to evaluate whether such programmes actually serve science.
