International Whaling Commission (IWC) is holding a meeting of its eighty-nine member states in the British island of Jersey to consider the future of organization.

The meeting will provide pro-whaling and anti-whaling nations with a platform to share their views on commercial whaling practices and settle disputes, amid allegation that some pro-whaling nations such as Japan last year used money and development project plans to allure Caribbean and African nations to vote in favor of commercial whaling practices.

Speaking on the issue, Iceland’s IWC Commissioner Tomas Heidar said, “It turned out…last year that some of the anti-whaling countries were not willing to accept that kind of compromise.”

It may be noted here that some nations such as Japan are still hunting whales despite a moratorium on commercial whaling since 1986.

Host nation Britain has proposed that governments should pay their membership fees by bank transfers as it would make the system more transparent because bank transfers can easily be traced.

Australian Environment Minister Tony Burke also said that his country would not accept practice of commercial hunting of whales. He said that Australia’s tough stance on the issue of commercial whaling would not alter in wake of Japan’s recent tsunami misfortune.

According to some estimates, as many as 1,500 whales are hunted each year by Japan, Iceland and Norway. Japan is the biggest whale-killer of the world.