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A proposal to set up a whale sanctuary in the South Pacific, should the
current whaling moratorium be lifted, was rejected at a meeting of the
International Whaling Commission in Adelaide this week. A vote failed to reach
the three-quarters majority needed to approve the proposal from Australia and
New Zealand, supported by the US and Britain. In a separate move, the IWC’s
Scientific Committee has questioned whether its decade-old estimate of 760 000
minke whales in the southern hemisphere is still accurate. Japan uses the
estimate to support its push for a return to commercial whaling of minkes.