FLORIANOPOLIS (BRAZIL) - Pro- and anti-whaling nations locked horns Monday as the International Whaling Commission (IWC) began meeting in Brazil amid outrage over Japan's proposal to end a three-decade moratorium on commercial whale hunting. Incoming IWC chairman Joji Morishita said the meeting could determine the future of the 89-member intergovernmental body, torn for years by nagging disputes between conservationists and whalers. "We have a duty to give definitive direction to the conservation of cetaceans," Duarte told the meeting. Iceland and Norway are the only countries that allow commercial whaling and are likely to come under renewed pressure at the IWC meeting, which runs until Friday. "Our country hopes that the reforms will be supported, that the IWC will be functional again as a resources-management organization and that commercial whaling will be resumed.

Source: Bangkok Post September 11, 2018 00:45 UTC