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The New Zealand government has rejecting the latest plan from the International Whaling Commission saying it falls well short of New Zealanders expectations.
Whaling nations will be allowed to continue to hunt whales for the next decade although the number will be strictly limited under the latest version of a controversial proposal.
Protesters converged on parliament today forming a whale graveyard representing the 25,000 whales killed in the last 20 years.
This protest comes on the day the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has come up with a proposal to allow some whales to be openly hunted but the numbers would be capped and significantly reduced from current levels.
Earlier this month the idea of a cap was seen as an acceptable diplomatic solution. Whaling Commissioner Sir Geoffrey Palmer considered the idea and was pushing it as a serious option.
"The number of whales for which quotas have been issued are more than 3,000 that should be halved," says Palmer.
However, that has not panned out and instead a new proposal puts catch limits in the Southern Ocean higher than expected and now includes fin whales as well.
Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully says it is a big step backwards.
"The suggestion that there should be a small quota for fin whale in an inflammatory proposal in my view," he says.
Views on whaling will be debated again at a meeting in Morocco in June where 88 whaling and non-whaling nations will try to come to come to an agreement.
However, McCully is not confident.
"It is extremely disappointing given the amount of time and energy that has been consumed by this process and we will now fairly urgently explore what room there is for a significant shift," he says.
If there is no agreement it could spell the death of the IWC.
