The low key nature of the Sorrento meeting - with relatively little local TV and press coverage - goes some way to explaining why it was characterized by some of the most vicious name-calling ever seen from the media-hungry animal rights groups.

The NGO's 'shock and awe' tactic generated some media coverage but earned the displeasure of the majority of Commissioners, with the notable exception of New Zealand's Sir Geoffrey Palmer who, instead, chose to defend the inexcusable by making offensive jibes at his Caribbean counterparts.

Palmer's lack of graciousness on the vote-buying issue was equaled only by his excitable and badly-informed Conservation Minister who has no knowledge, and even less interest, about whale populations. In the world of Mr. Carter all whales are on the brink of extinction. His passion is fueled by his misunderstandings and stoked by the love of his own voice. It's time he grew up and stopped embarrassing his country.

With member states threatening to leave the IWC after the debacle of Berlin last year, some significant efforts were made to keep the organization together. The apparent progress on the completion of the RMS possibly gives the IWC a chance to survive, but South Korea is increasingly looking like the 'last chance saloon'. The animal rights groups quickly challenged the progress made by Chairman Fischer and tried to take the Commission back to the dark ages, ably assisted by the extremists from Wellington.

It seems that the animal rights groups have come to believe that the destruction of the IWC will aid their future fundraising campaigns and they are therefore willing to sacrifice it on the altar of publicity. Presumably they will cast Japan as the villain when the IWC house of cards comes tumbling down and rely on their powerful influence with the media to protect their image. While they are apparently willing to surrender the advantages the current system supplies them, their collaborators may not be so fortunate.

Sorrento also potentially saw the final attempts by anti-whaling countries to by-pass the pillars of the Convention. With no scientific justification for new whale sanctuaries, the proposals presented by Australia/ New Zealand and Brazil/ Argentina have no place in the IWC Schedule. The shift in the balance of power towards a 50/50 split means the IWC can no longer be exploited by loopholes that have allowed anti-whaling nations to subvert it for the last twenty years.

And so to South Korea…