Anti-whaling lobby rebuffs Japan (BBC)

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By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Anchorage, Alaska

Anti-whaling countries have rejected an offer which could have seen Japan scale back its Antarctic hunting programme.

Japan had said it would consider scrapping plans to include humpback whales in the catch.

In return it sought approval of its request for limited commercial hunting by four coastal communities.

But anti-whaling countries at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission rejected the move as a "needless act of provocation".
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The delegates said the Japanese plan amounted to commercial whaling, which has been banned for 21 years under a global IWC moratorium.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6699201.stm