By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
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Some parties in both pro- and anti-whaling camps have had enough of the deadlock which on one side sees up to 2,500 whales hunted each year under what is supposed to be a global moratorium, and on the other sees little appreciation of the argument that whales are just another natural resource that can be hunted sustainably.
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As delegates make their way to the Chilean capital Santiago for this year's meeting, which opens on Monday, there are indications that the timing may be right to build bridges across the divide.
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And there is the rub. There are things on which the various camps appear honestly to agree - the need to conserve the iconic blue whale, the need to research potential impacts of climate change - but on hunting, the divide is deep and largely genuine.
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"In the past we had discussions on various proposals but the time was not ripe. I couldn't say that it's fully ripe this time, but all the players and member countries recognise now that if we can't reach some kind of compromise, the IWC will collapse."
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The anti-whaling bloc would be likely to insist that scientific whaling - under which Japan currently hunts - would be banned, that greater areas of ocean be set aside as whale sanctuaries, that existing sanctuaries be respected, that international observers monitor hunts, that DNA registries of whalemeat be set up, that international trade be banned, and - above all - that the overall number of whales being hunted falls significantly and permanently.
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more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7463633.stm