The ban, first established in 1986, has helped raise the numbers of large whales, and some species now number more than 1 million. Most species of whale remain endangered, however, with humpbacks numbering around 8,000, bowhead whales between 6,000 and 9,000, and blue whales no more than 1,000.
At the conference, Japan, Norway and many Caribbean allies plan to argue that growing gray and pilot whale populations should no longer be protected. They are joined by whaling industry associations, which issued statements last week praising the health benefits of whale meat and opposing establishment of new whale sanctuaries in the world's oceans.
The United States and its allies - Australia, Britain, New Zealand and France - say the number of whales is still too low to ease the ban. And some anti-whaling groups argue whales should never be hunted because they are intelligent creatures.
"Nobody wants to go back to the whaling of yesterday, where whales were just blown away . . . but the fact is that controlled, managed whaling is now possible," said Eugene Lapointe, president of the pro-whaling World Conservation Trust.
Still, the pro-whaling countries are not expected to muster the two-thirds majority needed to remove the ban.
"The lines are pretty well drawn," said Scott Smullen, a spokesman for the U.S. delegation, which supports the ban.
Japan and Norway pushed for a less ambitious change - a 1994 "management plan" that would allow whaling under a system of on-board observers and strict catch limits. These nations cited the gray whale hunt last week by the Makah, who have been allowed to resume limited whaling of gray whales near their reservation in Neah Bay, Wash. Gray whales were taken off the endangered list in 1994. The hunt was conducted under rules allowing indigenous tribes to revive native customs.
The U.S. delegation will present a report on the hunt, as well as an explanation for the 1998 killing of a bowhead whale calf by a Native American tribe in Alaska. Whalers are prohibited from killing suckling calves; U.S. officials say it was an accident.
The commission also will rule on charges that a whaler in the Caribbean country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines killed a calf and mother in 1998, and again in March. The whaler, Athneal Ollivierre, claims in both cases the adult whale had no milk and the calf was no longer nursing. If he is found guilty, his country could lose its quota of two whales per year.
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