In a bit of symbolic irony, the first day of the 55th annual International Whaling Commission meeting began with Japan trying to delete all conservation items from the week's agenda and ended with the delegates passing the landmark Berlin Initiative, which strengthens the conservation agenda within the IWC itself.

By a vote of 25 to 20, the IWC adopted the Berlin Initiative, named after the German city that's hosting this year's meeting; the initiative, among other things, provides for the creation of a conservation committee to draft a "Conservation Agenda" as well as the means to implement it. Passage of the initiative came hours after pro-whaling Japan fired the opening salvo of the meeting when the country attempted to wipe the agenda clean of any conservation items, including whale watching, whale sanctuaries, and (of course), the Berlin Initiative. Japan argued that such items had no place in an international body ostensibly devoted to regulating whaling.

"The Berlin Initiative finally brings the IWC into the 21st century," noted Patricia Forkan, The HSUS's executive vice president who has been attending IWC meetings since 1973. "The decision formally acknowledges the IWC's evolution over the past 50-plus years. This is an organization that has progressed well beyond the mere regulation of whaling and into the more enlightened arena of conservation, which will benefit all generations, including those not even born yet."

The Berlin Initiative almost didn't make it to a vote. Japan tried to kill it based on a procedural flaw, but Mexico, the initiative's author, removed the offending language without diminishing the document, and the vote proceeded. A Mexican commissioner set the tone for the vote by announcing: "A vote against this resolution is a vote against conservation."

The delegates responded in kind, although the vote clearly split along anti-whaling and pro-whaling lines, Forkan said. By passing the initiative, the commissioners have, as one observer noted, "put on record the foundations for more work on protecting whales and dolphins, both large and small, from by-catch, pollution, ship collisions and other growing threats to their populations."

The initiative could also have a beneficial side effect, The HSUS's Forkan noted. It could entice other countries to join the International Whaling Commission, particularly those nations that have historically viewed the IWC as a group that just argues about whale hunting all the time. "It could mean that those countries actually interested in whale conservation might join the IWC, which would help off-set the pro-whaling nations that Japan has enticed into the organization," Forkan said.

The opening day clearly didn't play out well for Japan, which hosted last year's IWC meeting. Not only did the island nation lose on the conservation votes, but it also lost on a proposal to allow secret ballots. According to the Associated Press, Japanese officials threatened to walk out of the IWC meeting if the Berlin Initiative passed.

Only time will tell if Japan follows through on its threat.