A Dark History of Whaling
Whales are magnificent, leviathan creatures. The sight of a whale tail rising from the sea is simply unforgettable. Highly social, whales navigate via sonar and communicate via song.
Sadly, many whale species were hunted to the brink of extinction because of decades of unregulated whaling from a variety of countries. The depletion of whale species led to a global movement calling on a whaling ban.
In 1982, the world’s nations banded together to stop commercial whaling by voting for a moratorium at the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Australia and AMCS were part of this movement. This global whaling ban came into effect in 1986.
Challenges After the Global Whaling Moratorium
Our CEO Darren Kindleysides at IWC 2018
Despite a successful vote at the IWC for a global whaling moratorium in 1982, deep divides between pro-whaling nations like Japan, Iceland and Norway and anti-whaling countries like Australia, the UK and Brazil, continued to challenge the IWC.
These tensions resulted in attempts by pro-whaling countries to bring back commercial whaling. In 2010 the IWC reached crisis point and the meeting came perilously close to approving a return to commercial whaling. AMCS was part of the international negotiations that fought off the disastrous compromise at the eleventh hour.
Defying the moratorium, countries continued industrial whaling under “reservations” or under the pretence of ”‘scientific whaling”.
The government of Japan defied the IWC global whaling ban by exploiting a loophole to kill whales under the guise of conducting research for years. Since the moratorium, more than 15,000 whales have since been hunted and killed by Japan in the Southern Ocean and Antarctic waters.
AMCS has worked to close this loophole. At its 2016 IWC meeting, Australia led a landmark resolution approved by the 88 nations of the IWC, which narrows the loophole that allows nations to kill whales for scientific research. Although the IWC has tightened this loophole, it still remains.
However, anti-whaling campaigns and legal challenges against Japan continued and subsequently, Japan was not able lift the ban on whaling – a success for the anti-whaling agenda. Finally, the government of Japan turned their back on global efforts to conserve whales and on the 26th of December, 2018, announced their departure from the IWC.
This was a significant moment because on one hand, it meant Japan’s whaling fleet won’t return to the Southern Ocean. On the other, it meant Japan would restart commercial whaling in their own waters where some of the most threatened minke whale populations live.
Norway and Iceland continue to whale in Northern Hemisphere waters. However, in 2019 Iceland did not hunt for any whales because of a decrease in demand for whale meat.
Other threats to whales
As global whale populations slowly recover from decades of whaling, they face other threats such as:
- climate change
- entanglement in fishing nets
- plastic pollution
- underwater noise and
- ship strikes
Solutions to threats and whaling
We know that sanctuaries save lives, protecting critical habitats and providing safe spaces for vulnerable whales to breed and mature.
Australia has been a global leader in whale conservation since the Fraser government banned whaling in 1979. We now need to rise again, demand new whale sanctuaries and better conservation measures, and step up and challenge the Japanese government over its needless, inhumane and illegal Southern Ocean slaughter.
With the government of Japan set to resume commercial whaling in its own waters, and both Iceland and Norway continuing commercial whaling in the Northern Hemisphere, it is time for anti-whaling governments to once again take a stand for the world’s whales.
