Vote brings commercial whaling move a step closer

THE International Whaling Commission (IWC) has entered unknown territory after a majority of members resolved to overturn the moratorium on commercial whaling.

But the vote will not mean an immediate return to the hunting of the mighty sea mammals — driven to the brink of extinction in the 1970s — as a 75% majority is needed to overturn the worldwide ban.

The resolution, approved by a vote of 33-32 with one abstention at the IWC’s meeting on the Caribbean island of St Kitts, declared that the moratorium on commercial whaling was meant to be temporary and was no longer needed.