Whaling Today
The rules governing the International Whaling Commission (IWC) are known as the "Schedule". While many decisions in the IWC can be reached by a simple majority (greater than 50%), any change to the Schedule requires a three-quarters majority (75%) in a vote of member nations.
At the 34th annual meeting of the IWC in 1982 a decision was taken to introduce a moratorium on commercial whaling. Technically, this meant that catch limits for all commercial whaling would be set to zero. The moratorium was written into the Schedule as Paragraph 10(e).
In accordance with the decision, the ban on commercial whaling came into effect in 1986 (the 86/87 whaling season), and no commercial whaling quotas were allocated that year, nor any since.
Today the commercial whaling ban remains in place, and the harpoon guns should have remained silent for the past 22 years. But this is not the case.
Unfortunately, a number of whaling nations have refused to abide by the spirit of the moratorium. Built into the IWC rules are two ways for avoiding adherence to such a decision.
One is by lodging a formal "Objection" within a certain time of the decision being made. Quite simply, when an amendment such as the moratorium has been passed, any member nation that officially notifies the IWC of its official Objection is then not bound by the decision, unless it later formally withdraws its Objection.
A number of IWC member nations lodged Objections after the 1982 moratorium vote. Some withdrew their Objections in subsequent years. Those who have retained at least some of their Objections are Japan, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (now the Russian Federation), and Norway. Iceland technically forfeited its Objection when it withdrew from the IWC in 1992.
The second and most well known loophole is the abuse of "special permit whaling", commonly called scientific whaling.
The minke whale is the main target of Icelandic, Norwegian and Japanese whalers
Japan
In the first few years of the moratorium Japan took 634 Bryde's, 615 minke and 388 sperm whales from the North Pacific and 3,882 minke whales from the Southern Ocean. Japan withdrew its Objection in terms of commercial pelagic whaling and commercial coastal whaling for minke and Bryde's whales from 1987, and commercial coastal sperm whaling from 1988. Since that time all Japan's whaling has been conducted under self-issued scientific permits - 396 Bryde's, 1,728 minke, 45 sperm and 492 sei whales in the North Pacific; 13 fin and 9,394 minke whales in the Southern Ocean.
The Japanese whaling fleet returned to the Southern Ocean for its 2009 hunt for 850 (+/-10%) Antarctic minke whales and 50 fin whales, although it did not fulfil these quotas. [See Japan in the menu bar to the left for further details.]
The Japanese Government now includes fin whales in its Antarctic "research"
USSR/Russian Federation
The USSR took 6,056 minke whales in the Southern Ocean in the first two years of the moratorium, but then stopped. It has conducted no commercial whaling since 1987 and has not resorted to scientific whaling. All the same, the Russian Federation has not officially withdrawn its Objection.
Norway
Norway conducted commercial whaling from 1986 to 1987, taking 752 minke whales. From 1988 it switched to scientific whaling, which it continued until 1994 taking a total of 289 minkes. In 1993, with its moratorium Objection still in force, Norway resumed commercial whaling and has since taken a further 7,683 minkes. All Norway's whaling has been conducted in the North Atlantic, in or near its coastal waters. [See Norway in the menu bar to the left for further details.]
Iceland
Between 1986 and 1989 Iceland took 292 fin and 70 sei whales under a self-issued scientific permit. The following year Iceland stormed out of the IWC and announced it would withdraw its membership in protest over continued IWC support for the moratorium. From June 1992 Iceland ceased to be an IWC member.
In 2001, the Government of Iceland applied to rejoin the IWC. However, it wanted to be re-admitted with a special "reservation" - that its Objection would be reinstated also. That is, Iceland did not want to be bound by the moratorium that was in place. Many members, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, UK and the USA, opposed this special dispensation, claiming that any nation that joins the IWC must be bound by all prevailing conditions, including the moratorium, even if that nation is a past-member. This issue has never been satisfactorily resolved.
Since officially rejoining the IWC in October 2002, Iceland has taken 200 minke whales under scientific permit and another 132 fin and 101 minke whales in commercial whaling operations. [See Iceland in the menu bar to the left for further details.]
In summary
The moratorium on commercial whaling came into force in 1986. Since then a total of 33,232 whales have been killed - 12,243 through the "Objection" loophole and 12,989 in the guise of science. All of these whales have made their way to the domestic whale meat market. Japan, Norway and Iceland have all announced their intentions to continue whaling.
