- Why do you think that they made a film of Moby Dick on Madeira in 1956?

1- Why do you think that they made a film of Moby Dick on Madeira in 1956?

          June 22 (Reuters) - The 85-nation International Whaling Commission (IWC) is holding its annual meeting from June 22-26 on the Portuguese island of Madeira to review whale hunts.

Whaling nations Japan, Norway and Iceland have been pushing for years for reforms to approve the hunts. Many nations and conservationists say harpooning the giant mammals is cruel and unnecessary and want a 1986 moratorium extended.

HISTORY

Large-scale whaling began around the 11th century with hunts by the Basques and gained momentum in the 19th century with the invention of faster steam-powered ships and deadlier harpoons.

The marine animals provided meat, oil for lamps, candles, soaps and perfumes and baleen for whips or corsets. Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick", about Captain Ahab's obsession with a white whale, brought the hunts to a wider audience.

Over-exploitation brought species such as the giant blue whale -- bigger than any dinosaur and with a tongue weighing as much as an elephant -- to the brink of extinction. The IWC imposed a moratorium on all commercial whaling from 1986.

It allows an exception for catches by indigenous peoples in places like Greenland, Siberia and Alaska.

Whaling nations Japan, Norway and Iceland argue that stocks of species like the small minke are big enough to allow hunts and say the IWC, set up in 1946, has betrayed its roots by emphasising conservation at the expense of a twin goal of enabling "the orderly development of the whaling industry".

MAIN WHALING NATIONS

JAPAN - Harpooned 679 whales in the last Antarctic summer season, almost all minke whales, below a target of 850 after disruptions from anti-whaling activists. It caught just one fin whale compared to a quota of 50. Separately, Japan sanctions harpooning more than 250 whales in the northwest Pacific. It says that the whales are caught for scientific research.

NORWAY - Has set a quota of 885 minke whales for each year from 2009-13. Whalers often fail to catch their full quotas -- catches were 538 in 2008 and 597 in 2007 -- often blaming rough seas or factors such as high fuel prices. Opponents say demand for whale meat has fallen in recent years.

ICELAND - Last week caught the first fin whale of a 2009 quota of 150. Reykjavik has sanctioned hunts of 100 minke whales this season. Iceland ended a 20-year ban on commercial whaling in 2006.



ARE WHALES ENDANGERED?

Nearly a quarter of all 44 species of cetaceans -- including whales and dolphins -- are endangered, according to a "Red List" run by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

A 2008 report showed that some large whale species such as the humpback, minke and southern right whales were recovering, helped by curbs on hunts. The minke whale is rated in the category of "least concern" -- meaning it is not a threatened species -- but the fin whale is "endangered".



INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Norway, Iceland, Faroes, Japan and Peru in theory permit trade in whale products despite a ban under the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Iceland and Norway sold a consignment of meat to Japan in 2008.



-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/

(Editing by Michael Roddy)