Proposal to resume whaling defeated amid bitter feuding

Japan and Norway were defeated last night in their attempt to restart commercial whale hunting, at the end of another day of bitter feuding among members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) that has seriously shaken the authority of the international body.

A dispute over whaling rights for indigenous people generated angry name-calling between the United States and Japan, which accused the Americans of hypocrisy and double standards.

This year's IWC meeting, in the port of Shimonoseki, Japan, has been the most bad tempered for years. Many observers fear the bitter divisions between pro and anti-whaling countries have undermined the credibility of the IWC and the 16-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling.

The proposal to resume whaling was defeated by 25 votes to 16. It was opposed by Britain, Australia and New Zealand, as well as by the US. But the pro-whaling bloc got its revenge by stopping an American and Russian request to allow limited hunting by indigenous people.

Five isolated coastal communities – including the Inuit of Alaska and Greenland, and the Chukotka people of Siberia – are permitted to kill a small number of whales every year for their own use.

All the members of the IWC agree the whale meat is an important source of protein for people in harsh environments. But Japan insists it will allow the quotas only if its coastal fishermen, who do not suffer from a lack of protein, are allowed to take 50 whales themselves. Masayuki Komatsu, a senior member of Japan's delegation, said: "This year the United States delegation has a message to take back home – end the hypocrisy. The US requests for quotas are a complete double standard."

A representative of the Chukotka people said that preventing his people from whaling would be disastrous. "Today was comparable to the events of 11 September for the Chukotka," he told the delegates. "Who destroyed the whale stock throughout the world? Was it the indigenous people? You know that it was not." Never before have the aboriginal quotas been rejected.

Delegates spent much of yesterday's session in private huddles attempting to work out a deal that might allow the quotas to be approved. Crucial to the final outcome is a group of small developing countries, including Antigua and Barbuda and the land-locked Mongolia, which repeatedly supports Japan. Opponents claim this is because they have been bribed with overseas development aid.