The IWC now has 66 members - four new ones joined last Friday. Here is how the votes went on Monday - and I'm listing them out here so no country can hide!

The first really big vote was to close the debate on whether to drop humane killing, whale watching, health issues, small cetaceans and the conservation committee from the agenda. A vote of Yes was to retain the items on the agenda, a note of no was to drop them. It was a close call- the proposal failed with 29 votes in favour and 28 opposed.

CONSERVATION COMMITTEE VOTE

Yes: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Czech republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Portugal, San Marino, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA

No: Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Denmark Dominica, Gabon, Grenada, Guinea, Iceland, Japan, Kiribati, Korea, Mauritania, Morocco Mongolia, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Palau, Russia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Tuvalu

Abstain: None

The second crucial vote was on whether to introduce secret ballots into the IWC. This was a big one for Japan, it meant that in future small nations could be bullied/bribed into voting with Japan, or big nations could change their vote, and then not have to admit it to their citizens and the general public. This failed quite convincingly with 27 in favour and 30 opposed.

SECRET BALLOT VOTE

Yes: Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cameroon, China, Cote d'Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, Grenada, Guinea, Iceland, Japan, Kiribati, Korea, Mauritania, Morocco Mongolia, Nicaragua, Norway, Palau, Russia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Tuvalu

No: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Czech republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Portugal, San Marino, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA

Abstain: None

One of the reasons these votes failed was the fact that four of the new countries recruited by Japan - you know, those well-known bastions of whaling Gambia, Mali, Nauru, and Togo - were absent. But we expect them to darken the doorway at any minute - prompting some joking conversation last night about whether we should chain ourselves to the doors at Ulsan airport (at this, our photographer begged, "Please at least wait until after 7, I have a plane to catch!").

Today was Day Two, and started off with a bang when St. Lucia took the floor to request a private meeting of Commissioners giving only vague details of why. As the Australian minister put it so well: 'It is an absolute outrage. It is a secret why we want this secret meeting.' (I had to smirk when I read this. Nice one Mr Campbell!)

Australia challenged this meeting, but sadly the challenge failed with 20 votes in favour, 28 opposed and 9 abstentions. I'm listing those countries here because some of the abstentions are surprising - thanks a lot Netherlands.

SECRET MEETINGS FOR SECRET REASONS VOTE

Yes: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Panama, Portugal, San Marino, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, UK

No: Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cameroon, China, Cote d'Ivoire, Denmark, Dominica, Gabon, Grenada, Guinea, Iceland, Japan, Kiribati, Korea, Mauritania, Morocco, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Norway, Palau, Russia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Tuvalu

Abstain: Chile, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Oman, Sweden, Switzerland, USA

The Japanese delegates apparently yelled and cheered at this result, so John booed loudly back at them. Little did the Japanese know that their time was coming … The secret meeting lasted about an hour and was described to us as a time wasting tactic - presumably the whalers are waiting for their new recruits to arrive.

In the afternoon, we expected the Nordic nations to bring forward a secret proposal (handy hint: if you are ever preparing a secret proposal for a meeting, don't leave a copy of it on the photocopy machine). There were also some funny moments during the voting, for example when a Mauritania had to vote first and didn't know which way to vote because Japan hadn't voted yet!

This evening brought even better news for the whales with Japan’s proposals to establish a Revised Management System (e.g. manage whales by re-introducing commercial whaling) and get rid of the world’s existing whale sanctuaries. Despite all their recruitment, dodgy tactics, and abuse of small struggling nations, the Japanese proposal lost by a convincing margin: 29 - 23!! Interestingly, abstaining countries were: China, Denmark, Kiribati, Morocco and Korea. I will update this entry as soon as I have the inside word from Mr Frizell. Korea and China both abstained though, which was a major victory!

All in all a pretty successful day, although there is still some way to go. Also, as much as this is all good news, dolphins and smaller whales are still relatively unprotected under these systems, and of course the scientific whaling loophole is still wide open. But in general it’s been an amazing result after such an aggressive build-up from Japan. Although, some bad news came through today that 3 more minkes have been killed in Korea in the last 5 days ... convenient for the whale festival??

More as soon as it comes to hand …

- Adele

(Photo by Jeremy is Won Ju, our translator, showing the press some photos of the Virtual March).