What's At Stake?
Call for a Global Whale Sanctuary Now
Although the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling in 1986, the 1946 IWC Convention allows any country that officially objects to a conservation measure, to not be bound nor required to comply. Pro-whaling nations not only disregard the moratorium, but continue to expand the numbers and species of whales they slaughter each year.

Norway and now Iceland are able to openly hunt whales commercially—and increase their quotas at will because they have formally objected to the ban. The Convention also allowed countries to kill whales for scientific research. Japan hunts whales for commercial purposes under the guise of conducting research and even hunts them in an IWC-designated sanctuary.

On top of that, Japan is trying to create a new category of coastal commercial whaling in an attempt to further circumvent the ban and open the door for more countries to begin hunting whales. Many traditionally pro-conservation countries are actually considering allowing this. Meanwhile, they are powerless to prevent the increasing number of whales already being killed in spite of the decades-old ban.

Clearly the commercial whaling ban is not being properly enforced. Loopholes in the Convention allow for over-exploitation and deplorable suffering. Numerous resolutions condemning scientific whaling programs have been ignored. What we need to do is apply significant and serious diplomatic pressure to these few whaling nations in order to close the loopholes and create a global whale sanctuary.


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Maintainer: Humane Society International (info@hsi.org)