By Samantha Hayes
There are two new reasons for the anti-whaling lobby to cheer today. Tokelau announced it is outlawing whaling in its waters – the 11th Pacific country to do so - and Japan announced it has been unable to kill as many whales as it wanted in the Southern Ocean this year, partly due to the actions of protesters like New Zealand's Pete Bethune.
Tokelau's announcement its waters are now a whale sanctuary came with a message.
"We call on the world to respect our sanctuaries for whales," said Rawiri Paratene. "No whaling in sanctuaries, no way."
But it's a message Japan has been ignoring for 23 years. This season they killed 507 whales in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary.
So will one more sanctuary make any difference?
"It is important that nations around the world show their commitment to conservation, that they take a stand for whale protection," says Karen Sack, director of International Ocean Conservation. "That is what we are seeing with Tokelau's announcement today."
In New Zealand, marine mammals are protected under the law, but New Zealand has never taken the next step and declared its exclusive economic zone a whale sanctuary, like Australia and 10 other Pacific countries now have.
Tokelau's decision comes as Sir Geoffrey Palmer chairs a meeting in Washington to discuss his suggestion to legalise a certain amount of whaling.
The 88 member governments of the International Whaling Commission will vote on June 21.
It's a move scientists from the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium say New Zealand needs to make a moral stand against.
"I think given the threat to the Southern Ocean right now, that a political declaration of New Zealand's waters being a whale sanctuary would seem to be a fairly easy step to take," says Sue Miller Taei.
In the meantime, Sea Shepherd say they will continue to police the Southern Ocean sanctuary.
The spokesperson for the Japanese whalers says their tactics were effective.
"The reason for the reduced catch this year can be put down to the 31 days of harassment by the Sea Shepherd terrorist group," says Glenn Inwood.
The Japanese caught almost 50 percent fewer whales than they had hoped.
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