Whaling Commission chief considers ending ban

The outgoing chair of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has suggested whale conservation could benefit from ending the commercial hunting ban.

Dr William Hogarth's remarks came at the end of this year's IWC meeting, which saw pro- and anti-whaling nations agree to further compromise talks.

The meeting deferred a decision on a controversial bid from Greenland to add humpback whales to its annual hunt. The Greenland Inuit are one of the indigenous peoples granted hunting quotas because they are deemed to need whalemeat.

A day earlier, IWC delegates also failed to find a compromise between pro- and anti-whaling nations on how to merge their views, extending for a year a deadline to decide on the future of the IWC if no agreements can be made.

The IWC was set up in 1946 by 15 whale-hunting nations in order to manage a whale population that was being threatened by the fishing industry. The body now has 85 members and has taken an increasingly conservationist approach.

In 1986, it instituted a ban on commercial whaling that still stands today.