At a recent three day meeting, the International Whaling Commission refused Denmark its request to allow them to limited hunting of humpback whales off the coast of Greenland. The proposal failed to garner the necessary support at a commission vote in St Petersburg, Florida.

Denmark since last year had been pushing that indigenous Greenlanders be allowed to hunt the whales for their meat. There are concerns however that the request will be put to another vote at the commission's annual conference scheduled for June in Morocco and that the request may be granted.

Greenland Inuit people who already consume a lot of whale meat, particularly in winter already benefit from an exemption to the commission's convention, allowing its people to hunt around 150 minke whales, 20 fin whales and two bowhead whales per year. Any quota granted for humpbacks could provide a loophole for commercial whaling of the species.