South Africa and Panama voted no. In 1973, a moratorium was once again proposed and voted down in the IWC lacking the required 3/4 majority (8-yes, 5-no, 1-abstain). Japan, the Soviet Union, Iceland, Norway and South Africa voted no. Between 1973 and 1982 the IWC would see its membership increase from 14 nations to 37, perhaps stacking the vote in favor of anti-whaling nations. In 1980 and 1981 two more votes failed to establish a moratorium by a 3/4 majority (13–9–2 and 16–8–3). In 1982, the IWC finally voted in favor of a moratorium on commercial whaling to go into force in 1986 (25–7–5). Japan objected to the moratorium and continued whaling (Under the ICRW an objecting nation is exempted from the disputed regulations. Japan also continued to hunt sperm whales despite a 1981 IWC zero catch quota.). The United States would play a significant role in Japan's acceptance of a global moratorium on commercial whaling due to its domestic laws. In particular the 1971 Pelly Amendment to the US Fishermen's Protection Act gives the US President legal authority to prohibit importation of fish products from any nation that is diminishing the effectiveness of fisheries conservation programs. It was later strengthened by the 1979 Packwood-Magnuson Amendment to the Fishery Conservation and Management Act giving the same sanctioning power with regard to the ICRW. Potential US sanctions jeopardized access for Japanese fisheries to Alaskan waters, with an annual catch of a million tonnes of fish (), worth an estimated $425 million per year. A negotiated settlement was reached, allowing Japan to continue commercial whaling without the threat of US sanctions until 1988, with an agreement to drop Japan's objection to the moratorium in 1985. However, conservation groups sued the United States Secretary of Commerce, claiming that the law did not allow any deals. That claim was defeated by a US Supreme Court decision in 1986, and, as agreed, Japan withdrew its objection to the moratorium and ceased commercial whaling by 1988. Japan's access to Alaskan waters was later phased out anyway, due in part to pressure from US fishermen and conservationists, and also in response to Japan's subsequent use of research whaling. Research whaling In 1976, the quota for Southern Hemisphere Bryde's whales was set to zero by the IWC. However, Japan proceeded to take 225 of them during the 76–77 season by issuing itself a permit to take whales for