For the most part, the 2001 International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in London went the way that pro-whale groups wanted. Particularly satisfying was the failure of Iceland's precedent-setting attempt to rejoin the IWC as a whaling nation.

Iceland withdrew from the IWC in 1992, ten years after the moratorium on commercial whaling was adopted. Because Iceland had never formally objected to the moratorium (or "taken a reservation," in IWC parlance), the country was bound to honor it. In 2001, Iceland announced that it wanted to rejoin the IWC because it felt the climate at the commission was more favorable to countries that wanted to resume whaling. It would rejoin the IWC, Iceland said, but it would take a reservation on the commercial whaling ban.

Australia and the United States submitted a motion to reject Iceland's reservation. Although there was palpable acrimony between pro- and anti-whaling parties during the ensuing discussion, the motion passed easily. (Nineteen nations voted for it, none against; three abstained; and 16 nations refused to participate in the vote.) Iceland is officially an observer nation.

Next, Japan and Norway moved to allow the Russian Federation, another whaling nation, to vote at the IWC despite its failure to pay IWC dues. Russia lost in a 15–22 vote.

Then Japan and Norway proposed that secret ballots be used for voting—a move that would eliminate much of the transparency that many nations and non-governmental organizations feel is essential to the integrity of the IWC. The motion was defeated in a 14–22 vote.

After that, things stopped going so well for the whales. Although it was supported by the nations whose territory it involved, New Zealand and Australia's second bid to create a South Pacific Whale Sanctuary couldn't draw the necessary three-quarters majority (though two more nations voted for it than had at the last IWC meeting). As expected, the Japanese-Caribbean block was unanimous in its opposition to the sanctuary.

Australia's Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Robert Hill, told the press that the country would continue to press for the sanctuary. Hill urged South Pacific nations to follow the example of French Polynesia, which announced it will establish a national whale sanctuary. "If all of the South Pacific states that supported what we're doing did similarly, that would cover 75% of the South Pacific."