This year marks the 40th anniversary of the moratorium on commercial whaling, which had sought to an end centuries of slaughter that had driven many species to the brink of extinction.  The International Whaling Commission (IWC) vote on July 23, 1982 was indeed a historic attempt to save larger species of cetaceans from what had by then become an apparent existential threat.  

The worldwide ban was to come into effect, and did, in 1986.  Sadly, not all countries were to abide by this agreement.  To this day a small number of them still maintain a whaling industry, almost always subsidized by the taxpayers of those nations.

The first thing to understand about this agreement is that it wasn’t negotiated with the objective of protecting whales.  The intent was to manage a valuable resource so that it could be exploited well into future generations.  It was not to defend these gentle giants from the excruciating pain inflicted upon them when killed.  It wasn’t out of respect for the lives and well-being of fellow creatures possessing sophisticated cognitive abilities and complex social lives, language and culture.  It was simply to ensure that there would continue to be a supply of whales to be harvested for our own purposes in the years and decades ahead.  Their wellbeing was not at issue.

This came at a time when we were relatively unaware of the nature and intelligence of these beings.  Nor did we have much of a clue as to the essential role they play in the maintenance of healthy ocean eco-systems, much less of their crucial value as allies in the battle against climate change.

Whaling started as an industry sometime around the 11th century and, with progressively more efficient methods of killing them, it was inevitable that their numbers would fall dangerously.  New estimates of the toll land at just under three million killed in the 20th century alone.  The need to regulate whaling activities had become obvious by as early as 1925, with the League of Nations formally recognizing that whales were being exploited at an unsustainable rate.

Since most species are migratory, the need for international cooperation was clear, and talks proceeded for the next decade and a half.  These culminated in the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in 1948. The preamble to this agreement is very revealing as to the state of mind that prevailed at that time.

“Recognising the interest of the nations of the world in safeguarding for future generations the great natural resources represented by the whale stocks…having decided to conclude a convention to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry.” 

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was then established as the decision-making body under this convention.  Its members (originally 14 nations, currently 88) meet annually to discuss issues like catch quotas, acceptable killing methods, and protected areas.  Regulations are adopted on the basis of a three-quarters majority vote.  Much more recently, the IWC has begun working towards a more comprehensive agenda, including bycatch, fishing industry ‘ghost-gear’, and environmental pollution and degradation. 

It should be noted that IWC controls on commercial whaling provide for exceptions (or ‘loopholes’ if you prefer).  These include provisions for scientific research, notoriously exploited by Japan for many years.  Another is whale hunting by indigenous people, referred to as “aboriginal subsistence” whaling.  Today, this latter results in the deaths of many more whales than the combined efforts of remaining commercial-whaling nations.  (See our post on this topic from June 5, 2021.)
     
The Current Status of the IWC Moratorium on Whaling

First, the good news.  There are no former whaling nations that wish to resume commercial hunts.  None.  Also, over recent decades the IWC has been gradually shifting its emphasis towards conservation and research – much in keeping with the evolving times.  In effect, the original purpose of the moratorium has become rather moot in the eyes of most nations.  I don’t believe this is simply because whales continue to face a host of threats.  A few species have seen their numbers rebound, and it’s conceivable that one might successfully argue that the resumption of a commercial hunt of those would be economically viable.  

What I think is the case, however, is that lawmakers in these nations recognize that the moral argument is not so easily made.  We now know much more about whales and other cetaceans than we did in 1982.  Thinking of them as commodities to be harvested from the ocean seems a much less defensible position than it was then.  Furthermore, we now know that every large whale provides approximately USD $3M in economic benefits over the course of its lifetime.  Its value to the world as a living, breathing organism is enormous.  

You can think of owning a whaling company in this way.  When you kill a whale, you’re appropriating for yourself a relatively small amount of value from the sale of its meat, blubber and body parts.  But you’re stealing from every other person on Earth a much greater aggregate value.  You’re engaging in an egregiously wasteful activity at everyone else’s expense.  Not to mention the considerable harm to the environment by removing an animal that plays such a vital role in its maintenance.  On top of all that, you have to live with the fact that your industry has come nowhere close to finding a killing method that is quick and not exceedingly cruel.

So the bad new is, then, that the remaining whaling nations – The Faroe Islands, Iceland, Japan and Norway – all seem to have politically influential whaling industries.   I say influential simply because, how else are they not only permitted to perpetuate such an activity given all we now know, but they are even supported by the taxpayers of those countries in most cases.  

Before we make a quick run through this list I want to make sure that we in Canada don’t pretend to be morally blameless on this question.  The ‘non-zero quotas’ we’re permitted for subsistence hunts are for a very different purpose than are commercial hunts – that’s true.  But the fact that we haven’t managed to find alternatives to provide food security to many of our northern communities means that Canada may well be the world’s leading nation when it comes to the killing of whales.  This is a question that needs to be addressed with much more urgency than we’re currently giving it.   

That said, here is where we stand, right now in late 2022, in each of our remaining whaling nations, 40 years after the moratorium.  We need to get this list down to zero, and for these crimes against nature to become simply part of the historical record.  

Faroe Islands

While the Faroese would dispute that these are technically commercial hunts, the argument that they’re needed to supply food to island residents is frankly absurd.  The drive-hunting process and killing methods employed have long been well known for their cruelty.  But the world was especially aghast in September 2021 when 1,428 Atlantic white-sided dolphins were killed in a single day.  This prompted the Faroese government to launch an investigation.  Sadly, all that came out of it was new quotas, set at a level that’s already higher than the average number of dolphins and pilot whales killed each year. 

Iceland

For a brief time it seemed that we were done, as the two remaining companies had effectively halted their operations.  Unfortunately, after a four year hiatus, the hunting of fin whales resumed this year.  By season’s end, 148 had been slaughtered.  This despite the fact that fins – the second largest animal on the planet – are listed as vulnerable by the IUCN.  Further, there is very little market for the meat as Japan, historically the main buyer, now heavily subsidizes its own industry.

But once again we are hopeful.  The county’s Minister of Fisheries recently stated publicly that there is little justification for the continued authorization of whaling.  Further, she is of the opinion that the industry damages Iceland’s international reputation, negatively impacts exports, and affects tourism (about which the Icelandic Board of Tourism agrees).  

Japan

For many years, Japan had operated under the guise of ‘scientific research’ – with the audacity to splash the word across their vessels in large block letters (as pictured above), all the while carrying on a hunt which was obviously commercial in nature.  In 2014 the International Court of Justice agreed with this assessment in a case brought by Australia against Japan for its whaling ventures in the Antarctic.

In 2019 the Japanese announced their withdrawal from the IWC, and officially returned to commercial whaling.  It’s possible that fewer whales will be killed insofar as the Antarctic operations have ended, and the hunts take place only in Japan’s own jurisdictional waters.   Nevertheless, whales will continue to die, cruelly and entirely needlessly.

Norway

Norwegian whalers killed more than 580 minke whales during the 2022 season.  This is just the latest of 15,000 or so that have been killed in the 40 years since the moratorium, arguably making Norway the world’s worst offender in terms of strictly commercial hunts, since this is close to half of the overall total.  

Otherwise, Norway’s case is typical of whaling in general, in at least two key ways. 

First, modern whaling methods employ grenade harpoons, for which advocates claim quick kills.  The truth is that they create excruciating pain and often don’t bring about the whale’s death for up to 30 minutes.  Misinformation by an industry that needs to distract the Norwegian public about what is nothing less than an inhumane industry.  

Second is trending that bodes poorly for whalers over the long term.  As in Iceland and Japan, Norwegians are eating less whale meat with every passing year.  Without subsidies it’s hard to imagine the industry remaining viable for much longer.  Further, polling shows that younger Norwegians are far more in favor of saving whales than of hunting them.

Where will we be 50 years in?

Looking ahead to 2032 our hope is that most whaling, if not all, will have ceased.  Whales are vital to the health of marine ecosystems.  They are intelligent beings who form complex relationships with others of their kind.  They suffer enormously when we pursue and kill them.  That we would continue to do so, and to cut them up and sell their body parts is foolish, wasteful, and inhumane.  Given the scale and scope of the environmental challenges that currently confront us, whaling is not only to the whales’ detriment, but also very much to our own.

We can be much better than this.  It’s time to end whaling for good.

For The Orca’s Voice, 

Phil, Canadian Cetacean Alliance