The International Whaling Commission's (IWC) meeting on Thursday rejected a proposal to create a sanctuary in the southern Atlantic Ocean for whales and cetacean species. This disappointed animal conservationists.

At the IWC annual session held in Lima, Peru in March, 40 countries supported a plan for a safe zone that would prohibit commercial whale hunting along the coasts from West Africa up to Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. This protected area was already present in the Southern Ocean.

The plan was narrowly defeated by 14 countries, as it failed to receive the required 75% votes.

Norway was one of three countries still engaged in commercial whaling along with Iceland and Japan. Iceland abstained while Japan withdrew from the IWC.

Petter Meier of the Norwegian delegation told the meeting the proposal "represents everything that is wrong" with the IWC. He added that a sanctuary would be "completely unnecessary".

According to IWC data, Norway, Japan, and Iceland caught 825 whales worldwide in the past year.

The proposal stated that "foreign" whaling fleets have been "severely exploiting" the majority of species of large whales found in the South Atlantic. A sanctuary would be able to help maintain the current populations.

According to the proposal, there are 53 species of cetaceans in the South Atlantic, including dolphins. Many of these species face extinction, according to the proposal. The proposal also included a plan for protecting cetaceans against accidental "bycatch", which is caused by fishing fleets.

Grettel Delagadillo is the Latin America deputy director of Humane Society International. The animal conservation group.

The IWC did not support Antigua-Barbuda's effort to declare whaling as a "source of food security". Instead, the IWC supported a proposal that would maintain a worldwide moratorium on commercial whale hunting in place since 1986.

Delgadillo said that the proposal was needed, given the efforts of pro-whaling countries to remove the 40-year ban. (Reporting and editing by SonaliPaul; David Stanway)

(source: Reuters)