Anti-whaling cause getting stronger says New Zealand

Wellington - Efforts to block Japan's desire to resume commercial whaling have been strengthened by new countries joining the cause, New Zealand's conservation minister said Tuesday.

The International Whaling Commission holds its annual meeting next week in Alaska, with Tokyo again expected to push for an end to the moratorium on commercial whaling.

Although it gained a narrow majority to end the ban last year, Japan needs a three-quarters vote for the moratorium to be overturned.

It has been recruiting countries friendly to its cause to the IWC and last week land-locked Laos said it would join to back Japan's position.

But the conservation lobby, led by western countries including Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Britain, have also been busy recruiting, New Zealand's Chris Carter said.

"This year the conservation bloc is looking very good," the conservation minister told Radio New Zealand.

"A number of Latin American countries which previously supported the Japanese -- like Panama and Nicaragua, Costa Rica and so on -- have all joined the conservation bloc, mainly because those countries see eco-tourism now as their future."

Greece, Croatia and Israel have also joined the IWC on the conservation side, he added.

But environmentalists fear the cause could still be weakened if Japan succeeds in changing some IWC rules, which require only simple majorities.

Carter said anti-whaling countries will also be pressuring Japan to drop plans to hunt humpback whales as part of its so-called scientific whaling programme.

A loophole in IWC rules allows countries to kill the mammals for scientific research and Japan said last year it planned to kill around 1,000 whales, including 50 humpbacks, under the provision.

Carter said New Zealand wanted Japan to cancel the plans as a "gesture of goodwill."

"They've never hunted humpbacks before, they're an iconic species and we believe they are endangered," he said.

Japan's summer hunting programme in the Southern Ocean, north of Antarctica, ended earlier than planned in late February after a fire badly damaged the fleet's mother ship.

The six-vessel expedition had killed little more than half its intended catch of 860 whales.

Agence France Presse