Plans for a whaling sanctuary in the southern Atlantic were put off by a year after Japan and other pro-whaling nations stalled talks on the proposal at the International Whaling Commission.
Delegates from Japan, Iceland and a number of allied Caribbean and African nations walked out when the issue came up at the IWC's annual talks in Jersey, throwing the meeting into disarray.
They later returned to the IWC floor but no agreement was reached on the issue, which was put on hold until next year's IWC meeting to be held in Panama.
The turmoil on the last day of the talks underscored the discord between nations that oppose hunting whales and whaling nations led by Japan.
"We have had this deadlock all the time, and frankly it's why we haven't been able to make as much progress on the very important conservation agenda items" said Monica Medina, the head of the US delegation.
The IWC agreed during the four-day talks to reform its financing structure to address allegations of corruption and vote-buying. From now on the organisation will only accept membership dues by bank transfers, which are easily traceable, rather than by cash or checks.
The move came in response to allegations that Japan had been securing the support of some developing nations by paying their membership dues. Japan denies any wrongdoing.
The US had wanted debates on a range of whale-related issues like ship strikes, ocean debris that entangles cetaceans, and noise pollution from factories and oil installations that disturbs whale feeding and breeding grounds.
"We had very important work to get done on those items and we just weren't able to get to them because we were in a deadlock," Medina said.
Commercial whaling is banned under a 1986 moratorium but various exceptions have allowed Japan, Iceland and Norway to hunt whales anyway. For example, Japanese whalers are active in an area off Antarctica that has already been established as a sanctuary.
Japan claims its hunts are for research purposes though the meat from the killed whales mostly ends up in restaurants, stores and school lunches.
The proposal to create a southern Atlantic whale sanctuary had been championed by South American countries. Vanessa Tossberger, from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, stressed the importance of whale sanctuaries for Latin American eco-tourism.
"For us, whale conservation is extremely important, because whales are worth much more money alive than dead," she said.
The creation of a new whale sanctuary is largely symbolic because few whales are caught in southern Atlantic waters. Still, whaling nations have blocked attempts to create a sanctuary there saying it lacks a scientific basis.
