Pro-whaling nations and foes in the global Green movement were braced Friday for a Cliffhanger vote for control of the body credited with saving whales from extinction. Japan and its pro-whaling partners hoped to carve out their first majority in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) since the debut of a moratorium on commercial whaling 20 years ago.
But an anti-whaling bloc, led by Australia, Britain and New Zealand, mounted a last-minute diplomatic push to frustrate Japan's bid as the IWC's annual meetings opened in the Caribbean state of St Kitts and Nevis.
Japan's alternate commissioner to the IWC, Joji Morishita, refused to predict how the votes would stack up. But he denounced as a "scare tactic" claims by anti-whaling campaigners that Japan's push for renewed commercial whaling could wipe whales out.
The US representative to the IWC, Bill Hogarth, also said the vote was too close to call. "It is uncertain, hour by hour," he said, though he cautioned that pro-whaling states looked set to eke out a one-or-two-vote victory.
The first sign of the new balance on the IWC was expected to be revealed at a vote later Friday on the agenda for the five-day meeting.
Environmentalists were cheered by a rumour that swept the luxury hotel hosting the conference Friday that one nation likely to side with Japan, the Marshall Islands, had decided at an 11th-hour cabinet meeting not to attend.
In another blow for the pro-whaling bloc, it emerged late Thursday that Guatemala, thought to be another potential Japanese ally, was also likely to miss the talks.