Push to bring whaling body into 'modern age'

SAINT HELIER, Jersey — The International Whaling Commission gathered Monday beset by familiar divisions and facing calls for reforms to improve transparency and root out alleged corruption.Whether or how to revamp the global body overseeing both the protection and hunting of whales dominated debate at the opening session of its 63rd annual meeting.When the IWC was created after World War II, the main danger facing cetaceans -- an order including some 80 types of whales, dolphins and porpoises -- were too many factory ships chasing too few whales.A 1986 moratorium, respected by all by a handful of nations, helped save several species from the brink of extinction.But today the great sea mammals are also threatened by ship collisions, climate change, pollution and "ghost" fishing nets that roam the seas, and some delegates say the IWC is too "archaic" and riddled with graft to fulfill its dual mandate."We think its procedures need modernising and we are coming forward with the bare minimum of requirements for an international organisation in the modern age," Britain's junior environment minister, Richard Benyon, told AFP on the sidelines of the opening plenary session held on the Channel island of Jersey.Benyon said the British plan should garner support both from "countries that support a return to commercial whaling as well as countries, like mine and France, that don't."The chronically deadlocked body was rocked last year by accusations in the British press that Japan used cash and development aid to "buy" votes from Caribbean and African nations.Japan, which denied the charges, is one of three countries along with Norway and Iceland that practice large-scale whaling despite the moratorium.Collectively, they take hundreds of the marine mammals each year.Smaller quotas are granted to other nations for traditional, indigenous whaling.Britain's resolution would end the practice whereby states can pay annual subscriptions by cash or cheque.Ranging from several thousand to more than 100,000 euros (140,000 doll

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