Japan: The environment movement suffered a huge setback this weekend when pro-whaling countries, led by Japan, won their first majority vote of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in two decades.
Japan and its allies, including Norway and Iceland, passed a declaration that condemned the 1986 moratorium on commercial whale hunting as "invalid", said the IWC had "failed its obligations" and blamed whales for depleting fish stocks.
The declaration, submitted by host nation St Kitts and Nevis, was passed by 33 votes to 32, with one abstention. Japan had narrowly lost four earlier votes, despite packing the conference with pro-whaling delegates.
Pro-whalers erupted into spontaneous applause when the result of the vote was announced. Irish delegate Christopher O'Grady was one of several stunned conservationists who called the result "a disaster".
Ireland, Britain and other nations immediately disassociated themselves from the declaration and said that it carried no policy weight. "This is simply a declaration of the views of pro-whaling nations, nothing more, nothing else," said Ian Campbell for Australia.
The victory is largely symbolic and does not mean an imminent start to commercial whaling. But there was no hiding that it is a sign of the shifting balance of power within the IWC after 20 years of bitter dispute between pro- and anti-whaling factions.
Environmental group Whalewatch called it a "sea-change" in the struggle to end the ban protecting the world's dwindling whale stocks from commercial hunting. "The future of whales hangs in the balance," said Leah Garces of Whalewatch. "This is a wake-up call to the world."
As the implications of the victory sunk in, there were heated exchanges between pro and anti-whalers, with New Zealand and Brazil belatedly challenging Iceland's right to vote on the declaration.
Conservationists said the vote showed that Japan could buy its way back to commercial whaling. "The vote is hugely significant but hardly surprising," said New Zealand's environment minister, Chris Carter. "Japan has gone to enormous lengths to get this result."
The anti-whaling delegates were particularly incensed that Denmark - a country nominally opposed to commercial whaling - had voted with Japan. Ms Garces said the result should trouble Danish people. "A majority of Danes oppose commercial whaling, so why is their government here promoting it," she asked.
Conservationists won the ban on commercial whaling 20 years ago after the IWC presided for decades over the decimation of global whale stocks. Many species, including the humpback, which Japan intends to begin hunting again next year, were pushed to the brink of extinction.
The head of the Japanese delegation, Joji Morishita, pledged over the weekend to "normalise" the IWC by hosting a breakaway meeting of pro-whaling delegates at the St Kitts conference.