End commercial whaling

During the 20^th century, almost three million whales were killed in commercial whaling operations, devastating whale populations around the world.

To address the severe overexploitation of whale populations, the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) was signed in 1946 and the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was established. Early efforts to manage whale hunting failed, however, and as whale populations collapsed due to overhunting, growing public and political pressure eventually convinced a majority of IWC members that the only way to save the great whales from extinction was to stop all commercial whaling.

Commercial whaling caused castastrophic population declines, especially for large whales such a fin, sperm and blue whales. Many were hunted to near extinction and are still struggling to recover today.

In 1982, the IWC agreed to set all commercial catch limits to zero, effectively banning commercial whaling from 1986. Commonly known as the moratorium., the ban remains in place today.

Despite the moratorium, the governments of three countries – Japan, Norway and Iceland – chose to allow continued hunting of whales, killing more than 45,000 whales since 1986. Their actions, with the support of a small group of IWC member countries, have consistently undermined the IWC’s efforts to protect whales and address the many threats they face today.

This year marks  both the 40th anniversary of the whaling moratorium and the 80th anniversary of the IWC itself and so we are calling on the governments of Japan, Norway and Iceland to end commercial whaling and for all IWC contracting governments to voice their support for a permanent end to commercial whaling at the forthcoming 70^th meeting of the IWC in September 2026.