Whaling peace plan to go forward this year
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News

Proponents of the deal say it would mean fewer whales being killed
A proposal aimed at bridging the split between whaling nations and their opponents will almost certainly come to governments for decision this year.
Sources say it could involve Japan accepting quotas below current levels; but Iceland is opposing proposed catch limits and an international trade ban.
Some anti-whaling countries see such a "peace package" as the only way to constrain whale hunting.
But others are likely to hold out for a complete end to the practice.
A small group of countries including the three active hunting nations - Iceland, Japan and Norway - and opponents such as New Zealand, Australia and Germany has been holding talks in Washington DC exploring a possible compromise on quotas and other issues.

Sources close to the talks say Japan appears prepared to contemplate scaling back its annual Antarctic hunt to a size that anti-whaling nations might find acceptable. In return, it would expect to gain catch quotas in the North Pacific waters close to its shores, which would benefit coastal communities where whaling is still practiced. Although commercial whaling was banned in 1982, Japan hunts under regulations permitting whaling for scientific research, while Iceland and Norway lodged formal objections to the moratorium and so mount openly commercial operations.

Nordic nations hope to sell whale meat into the Japanese market. Last year, Icelandic boats caught 125 fin whales and 81 minkes - a significant increase on previous years, though still substantially below quotas in the years before 1982. At a previous preparatory meeting, the anti-whaling side had proposed quotas of 60 fins and 60 minkes per year, Mr Heidar said. Knowing these were not acceptable to Iceland, the anti-whaling bloc then lowered their offer still further, he related - subsequently adding the rider that under the new agreement, whales would have to be caught for local consumption only.

As Iceland's ambitions include exporting fin whale meat to Japan, this was absolutely not acceptable.

International trade in whale meat is banned, but Iceland, Japan and Norway have registered exemptions to the UN wildlife trade convention for some whale species. The importance of international trade has been demonstrated in recent weeks by the interception in a Dutch port of an Icelandic whale meat consignment apparently destined for Japan, the disclosure of a small export from Iceland to Latvia, the closure of a Los Angeles restaurant that was selling whale meat, and a DNA study claiming to show that at least some of the meat sold there and in South Korea came from Japan's scientific whaling programme.