Japan/Whaling Commission: Japan and its pro-whaling allies unexpectedly failed to win a string of key votes at the annual International Whaling Commission conference in the Caribbean island of St Kitts over the weekend.
The result was a major disappointment for Tokyo, which has spent years and millions of dollars in a relentless drive to secure control of the commission, but it was greeted with relief by conservationists.
"It was a very satisfactory outcome from our point of view," said Irish delegate Chris O'Grady. "For Japan to have won these votes would have been symbolically very important."
As tempers frayed at the meeting, Australia was preparing to present video footage taken by environmentalists during Japan's recent hunt in the Southern Ocean showing whales taking as long as 30 minutes to die after being harpooned. Japan says the animals die after an average of 30 seconds and that drawn-out deaths are an exception. It rebuffed environmentalists' claims that whalers drown harpooned whales by dragging them backwards through the water.
The annual conference has been stalemated for years between whaling nations led by Japan, Iceland and Norway, and conservationists such as Australia and Britain, which say it must do more to protect the world's dwindling whale populations. In 1986 the organisation banned commercial whaling after presiding over the extinction or near extinction of many species.
Japan, which says stocks have recovered, was widely expected to begin dismantling the two-decade-old ban after securing the support of several new delegates, including Cambodia and the Marshall Islands. Critics say Tokyo recruits its allies using foreign aid.
The pro-whalers need two-thirds of the International Whaling Commission votes to overturn the ban, but a simple majority would have been a huge boost to their campaign, allowing them, in the words of one delegate, to "control the voice of the commission".
But several delegates in the pro-whaling camp didn't show up and the opposition was boosted by new converts to the conservationist cause, including Israel.
The pro-whalers' attempt to introduce secret balloting - widely seen as a litmus test of their strength - was defeated on Friday by just two votes. Japan also narrowly failed to rule out discussion on the preservation of small cetaceans (dolphins and porpoises) from the agenda. Japanese fishermen hunt thousands of these animals around its coastal waters every year.
A proposal on Saturday that would have permitted the killing of 300 minke and Bryde's whales was also defeated.
But Japan pledged to hunt 50 endangered humpback and fin whales in the Antarctic from next year under the guise of "scientific research", a move that has enraged conservationists.
"It is an outrage," said Australia's delegate Conall O'Connell. "Scientific whaling is just commercial whaling under another guise."
Ireland is solidly in the anti-whaling camp. The State's waters have been a whale and dolphin sanctuary since 1991 and UCC scientist Emer Rogan chairs the commission's research committee on small cetaceans. - (Additional reporting: Guardian service)