Divided, deadlocked and doomed? Dark days for whaling body

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2006

FRIGATE BAY, St Kitts and Nevis (AFP) — About the only thing member countries of the polarized International Whaling Commission can agree on is that it doesn't work.

A turbulent, often bad-tempered five days of annual talks in the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis only served to deepen divisions in the organization, and spark speculation over its future.

For anti-whaling countries, like Australia, Britain and New Zealand, along with a clutch of European nations, the IWC doesn't work because around 2,000 whales are culled a year -- despite a moratorium on commercial hunts.

"Regardless of the rhetoric and the posturing here, very little has been achieved for either whales or people this week," said Dr. Susan Lieberman of global conservation group WWF....