Sweden drew the ire of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on Friday as the country lent its backing to a proposal for the introduction of quotas for commercial whale hunting.
Minister for the Environment Andreas Carlgren has joined forces with Denmark in seeking a compromise that would allow the world's foremost whaling nationsJapan, Norway and Iceland to conduct legal hunts for the first time in 24 years,Reuters reports.
Most EU states remain firmly opposed to any compromise solution that would permit the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to set quotas. The IWC will rule on the matter at a summit meeting in Morocco later this month.
With whale hunting countries continuing to hunt despite the ban, Carlgren believes a regulated quota system would lead to fewer whale deaths.
"We think there is a window of opportunity to get Japan, Norway and Iceland into an international agreement. Today we have strong rules on paper, but in reality no control," the minister told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU environment ministers in Luxembourg.
