An aerial view of an environmental protest in Panama City shows protesters gathering in the shape of a whale.

The demonstration comes ahead of the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Panama City on Monday.

Greenpeace is calling for a South Atlantic whale sanctuary to be set up where whales would be protected from commercial whaling vessels operating south of the equator.

(SOUNDBITE)(English) PHIL KLINE, SENIOR OCEAN CAMPAIGNER FOR GREENPEACE USA, SAYING:

"Greenpeace is here to continue to hold countries accountable for their behaviour and to urge them all to move forward to the 21st century and start us off with the creation of a gigantic whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic."

An international moratorium on whaling has been in place since 1986.

At last year's IWC meeting, 18 countries, led by Japan, walked out of the meeting without coming to any sort of agreement.

Japan, Iceland and Norway are the only three countries that still hunt whales.

Sarah Sheffer, Reuters