Plan would allow commercial whaling around Japan

CANBERRA, Australia — The International Whaling Commission may ease its ban on commercial whaling to allow Japan to hunt whales off its coast in return for killing fewer whales in the Antarctic, officials said Tuesday.

Officials and whalers in the only three countries with whaling industries quickly praised what one commissioner saw as a step toward normalized commercial whaling — a sensitive issue for conservation groups, some of which have tried to disrupt Japan's whaling fleet.

Paul Watson, captain of the ship operated by the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, opposed the deal.

"It's sort of like saying to bank robbers that you can't rob a bank in the city, but we'll let you do it in the country," he told The Associated Press by satellite phone from the Antarctic Ocean.

Japan would be allowed to conduct commercial whaling in local waters in exchange for reducing the number of whales it kills in the Antarctic for scientific research — up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales this season.

The proposal, first reported in The Washington Post on Sunday, did not specify how many whales Japan would be allowed to kill.

Under current IWC rules, whales may be killed for research but not for commercial purposes. Opponents say the Japanese research expeditions are a cover for commercial whaling, since the whale meat is sold on the market.

The chairman of the IWC, William Hogarth, told the AP that the U.S. feels the ban on commercial whaling should stay in place. But he said the number of killed whales has been increasing, and the plan is an attempt to reduce the kill.

"There are a heck of a lot of hard, tough decisions to be made," he said. "In the end, it's gotta be better for the whales than it is now."

The plan will be distributed to IWC member countries Feb. 2, Hogarth said. The IWC's next annual meeting is in June.

Japan has wanted to hunt whales in local waters for years and says its whaling is solely for scientific research. As the world's most active whale hunter, it has been the focus of international protests.

Japanese fisheries agency official Hiromi Isa said his country hopes to resolve the deadlock that has existed since the IWC banned commercial whaling in 1986.

The other two whaling countries are Norway and Iceland, which chose not to abide by the ban as allowed by IWC rules.