59

Cetacean bycatch victims displayed in Berlin, Germany, last month

Well the last vote has finally been cast at this year's International Whaling Commission (IWC), all the results are in - and there's good news! Last year's St Kitts Declaration, an attempt by pro-whaling nations led by the Japanese government to restart commercial whaling, was decisively rejected. Anti-whaling countries have bounced back with a 37-4 vote for the CITES Resolution, which strengthens the commercial whaling ban.

It's time for us whale lovers to hold our breath and cross our fingers yet again as we watch developments at the 59th meeting of the International Whaling Commission, now underway in Anchorage, Alaska.

For the past few years the IWC, charged by the United Nations with protecting whales, has been the focus of serious lobbying by some whaling nations to allow a resumption of commercial whaling - suspended since 1986 following a dramatic decline in the number of great whales worldwide.