After decades of uncontrolled whaling and resulting collapse of whale populations, an international moratorium on commercial whaling was introduced in 1986.

However some countries - notably Japan and Norway - have exploited loopholes in the moratorium in order to continue killing whales for profit. They have also argued that, by definition, a moratorium was never meant to be permanent.

Other mechanisms were needed in order to ensure the whales' survival. One such mechanism is creation of sanctuaries -- safe places, places of refuge - which provide long term protection from commercial whaling.

The idea of sanctuaries for whales is not new.

The word's first international whale sanctuary was established by International Whaling Commission (IWC), the body responsible for ensuring the healthy state of whale populations, when it was founded in 1946. Called simply The Sanctuary, it covered one quarter of the Southern Ocean, an area of millions of square miles lying between South America and New Zealand. It protected whales until 1955 when, under pressure from the industry, due to falling catches in the Antarctic, it was temporarily opened. Within a year it was producing 25% of the total Antarctic catch and remained open until the IWC's moratorium brought an end to commercial whaling.

The IWC agreed in 1979 to establish the Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary, protecting whales in their and breeding and calving grounds

Fifteen years later, in 1994, the IWC established the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. This covers all waters surrounding Antarctica and protects three quarters of the world's whales in their feeding grounds.

At the 1998 meeting of the IWC, plans for two further sanctuaries were presented. The South Pacific Whale Sanctuary, proposed by Australia and New Zealand and the South Atlantic Sanctuary, proposed by Brazil. If accepted, these new sanctuaries would start where the Southern Ocean Sanctuary ends.

This coverage from the freezing waters of the Antarctic to the warm waters of the equator is vital to a comprehensive approach to whale conservation and protection. Most of the great whales are highly migratory, feeding in the nutrient rich waters of the Antarctic before travelling to tropical waters to give birth and suckle their young. They then make the long migration back to their feeding grounds.

Since whales rarely cross the equator, establishment of these sanctuaries would mean that the whales of the Southern Hemisphere could live their entire lives in an area free from commercial whaling.