Japan wins pro-whaling vote

Japan and other whaling nations on Sunday for the first time in more than two decades got a whaling group to criticise a global whaling ban, signalling they might finally have the muscle to challenge the moratorium.

The approval of a non-binding pro-whaling declaration by the International Whaling Commission, or IWC, does not immediately threaten the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, which saved the Earth's largest creatures from extinction and which Japan would like to overturn.

But in backing by 33 votes to 32 a statement that said the whaling ban was no longer necessary, whales were responsible for depleting fish stocks and non-governmental organisations were a "threat," the IWC boosted Japan's hopes of chipping away at the ban. There was one abstention.