(Times Union via Associated Press)
Japan walkout throws whaling talks into disarray
Updated 08:44 a.m., Thursday, July 14, 2011
ST. HELIER, Jersey (AP) — Japan and other pro-whaling nations walked out of a meeting of the International Whaling Commission on Thursday to protest a proposal for a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic.
Delegates from Japan, Iceland and a number of Caribbean and Africa nations walked out when the issue came up at the IWC's annual talks in Jersey, throwing the meeting into disarray.
Other delegates and IWC officials were huddling in small groups to decide how to proceed. It wasn't immediately clear whether they could vote on the proposal after the walkout.
The proposal, which would put whales off limits to hunters in the Atlantic south of the equator, has failed to win approval at previous IWC meetings. It's largely symbolic because few whales are caught in those waters.
Still, whaling nations have blocked attempts to create a sanctuary there saying it lacks a scientific basis.
Commercial whaling is banned under a 1986 moratorium but various exceptions have allowed Japan, Iceland and Norway to hunt whales anyway. For example, Japanese whalers are active in an area off Antarctica that has already been established as a sanctuary.
Japan claims its hunts are for research purposes though the meat from the killed whales mostly ends up in restaurants, stores and school lunches.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Japan-walkout-throws-whaling-talks-into-disarray-1464785.php#ixzz1S5F6xlQg
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