By Amanda Brown, Environment Correspondent, PA News
The Government has pledged its opposition to commercial whaling as international talks today aimed at lifting the global slaughter ban.
Anti-whaling groups attacked a "cruel and unnecessary" proposal by the Irish to allow hunting within coastal waters up to 200 miles, which they claim threatens the survival of these creatures.
Britain will be represented at the emergency talks in Antigua of the International Whaling Commission which open today specifically to discuss the plan.
It was first debated last October when the IWC met in Monaco.
While some groups claim it would curb the number of whales killed each year, others say it will be a disaster for whale conservation efforts.
Agriculture and fisheries minister Elliot Morley has deep misgivings over the Irish compromise and attended the IWC meeting last autumn to express his views.
UK commissioner Ivor Llewellyn is representing the UK at the negotiations in the West Indies but a MAFF spokesman confirmed to PA News the Government stance has not shifted.
"We do have doubts about this procedure and we are opposed to commercial whaling. We want to end the loophole for scientific whaling," the spokesman said.
Mark Simmonds of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said: "Not only is commercial whaling cruel and unnecessary, but the whole terrible history of whaling shows it to be impossible to regulate.
"Let's learn from the past and not give in to pressure from the whalers."
Irish commissioner Michael Canny's proposal is being seen as a bid to bring hunting back under IWC control, as Japan and Norway continue to defy a ban on commercial slaughter.
According to opponents, Japan is currently killing hundreds of whales in Antarctica for so-called "research" - the meat being sold for profit - while Norway has announced plans to kill more than 600 whales this summer.
Some campaigners fear easing the ban will also increase whale hunts and the smuggling of whale meat to Japan where it is an expensive delicacy, fetching up to and more than 200 per pound.
Sarah Wheeler, of the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency, said in Antigua today: "The Irish Government is preparing the ground to overturn the whaling moratorium behind closed doors miles from the media spotlight."