Whaling nations led by Japan failed at a world whaling meeting to swing a close vote that conservationists said could have signaled a return to full-scale commercial hunts.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) on Monday rejected by 27 to 30 a proposal by Japan to introduce secret balloting, which Tokyo said would have eliminated intimidation of smaller states by environmental groups and anti-catch countries.

Japanese children watch fishermen slaughter a whale. Australia's environment minister has dismissed as absurd and obscene Japan's argument that there is scientific value to its annual whale cull. (AFP/File/Kazuhiro Nogi)

The stage was nonetheless set for a showdown between the two sides for the rest of the week-long commission meeting in South Korea's former whaling port of Ulsan, with Japan announcing a major hike in its so-called research cull to outspoken criticism from Australia and New Zealand.

Anti-whaling countries opposed the secret ballot, saying it is without precedent in other international bodies and would have removed accountability and made behind-the-scenes deals between delegations more likely.

If the secret ballot had been adopted, it would have handed control of the bloc to the pro-hunt lobby for the first time in more than 20 years, with fears they would use their dominance to eventually dump a 19-year moratorium on commercial whaling.

Their failure to win even a simple majority in the procedural vote means that any major changes to the body -- which require a three-quarters majority -- are now almost certain not to be passed.

Although resuming commercial whaling was never on the immediate agenda, the anti-hunt lobby expressed relief that Japan had been voted down on the secret ballot.

New Zealand Conservation Minister Chris Carter said the result was perhaps the most important of the week-long conference.

"It now means that this organization continues, in my view, to have some credibility," he told AFP. "If secret ballots had come in, we would have lost that accountability that is so critical to a transparent process," he said.

A member of the Japanese delegation played down the failure to pass what whaling nations said was a democratic proposal to protect small developing countries from intimidation.

"It's disappointing because so many developing countries continually have pressure put upon them to vote in a particular way," the spokesman said, asking not to be identified.

"A secret ballot would have put a stop to that."

Environmental groups also welcomed the outcome.

"This protects the integrity of the organization for this year and bodes well for the future of whales and the moratorium," said Patricia Forkan from the Humane Society International.

Japan used the opening of the commission meeting to announce it would more than double its research kill in the Antarctic, taking its total catch to some 1,300 whales a year, and would extend the hunt to the endangered fin and humpback species.

The furious anti-whaling lobby said there was no scientific justification for Japan's catch.

"Where is the science from 18 years of scientific whaling? Where is the science? It doesn't exist," New Zealand's Carter said.

He said New Zealand's whale watching tourist sector, which earns tens of millions of dollars a year, would likely suffer as a result of the extension in the cull to humpbacks.

"We have a very healthy whale-watch operation in New Zealand... These are our whales, they're Fiji's whales, they're Tonga's whales... What right does Japan have to go into the Southern Ocean and slaughter these rare marine mammals?

"I say to Japan, it's an outrage. I say, shame that you are preparing to slaughter a species that is already in danger."

He also rejected Japan's contention that whaling was part of its cultural heritage, saying the tradition had never extended to the Antarctic waters where Japan now caught most of its whales.

Australia's Environment Minister Ian Campbell said before the outcome of the vote that the pro-whaling lobby's domination of the commission would have marked an end to more than two decades of conservation efforts.

"The world today will either be stepping forward into an era where conservation and environment really matter or will be stepping back into the dark ages where people of the world think that the slaughter of whales with grenades, using electric lances and shooting them with rifles is something we should accept."

Ben Bradshaw, the British minister responsible for fisheries, said the suffering that many whales were subjected to was "totally unacceptable in 2005."

"We don't think there's a humane way to kill a whale," he said. "This is an absolutely vital IWC meeting... Future generations will not forgive this meeting if we go backwards in our conservation of whales."

© 2005 AFP

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