Whaling ban faces crossroads at Alaska meeting

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Facing the most serious challenge to a 21-year-old ban on commercial whaling, anti-whaling nations look to reclaim a voting majority at a meeting next week to slow Japan's push to end the moratorium.

The International Whaling Commission holds its annual conference in Anchorage starting on Monday, one year after pro-whaling countries including Japan secured a one-vote majority and said a global ban on commercial whaling was no longer necessary.

Whaling nations are still short of the three-quarters majority of the 75-member commission needed to overturn the ban that went into effect in 1986.

"Anchorage is turning into a critical crossroads for whale conservation in the 21st century," said Patrick Ramage, head of the International Fund for Animal Welfare's global whale campaign.

The one-vote majority at last year's IWC meeting in the Caribbean island state of St. Kitts and Nevis was seen as a moral victory for pro-whaling nations and a sign of their progress in chipping away at the moratorium.

Anti-whaling forces led by the United States and Britain should get support from members added after last year's meeting. New members like Greece, Slovenia, Cyprus and Croatia are expected to vote with conservation-minded European nations.

"The simple majority now lies with those that don't support whaling at all," said Glenn Inwood, a spokesman for the Japanese delegation at the IWC, adding that both sides lack the votes to pass binding resolutions.

Japan and its allies seek to return the IWC to its 1946 roots as a group that regulates whaling. The opposition says the organization's policies over the last 20 years are responsible for saving the Earth's largest creatures from extinction.