International Whaling Commission

International Whaling Commission (IWC), permanent secretariat set up to conserve whale stocks throughout the world by regulating the whaling industry, and thus making possible the industry’s orderly development. The IWC is based in Cambridge, England.

The IWC was founded in 1946 under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. Its main function is to review and revise the measures laid down in the convention, and these measures include the complete protection of certain whale species, including the right whale, blue whale, sei whale, and sperm whale; the establishment of sanctuaries in the Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean; limiting the catch season and the number and size of whales that can be taken, which includes a ban on the capture of female whales accompanied by calves; and research. The commission monitors, through its scientific committee, the level of whale stocks, which forms the basis of regulations controlling catch levels. Subcommittees deal with breaking of regulations and with subsistence whaling by indigenous peoples. In 2006, 70 nations belonged to the IWC including all major nations involved in whaling.

In 1982 the IWC passed a ban on commercial whaling. It was phased in, initially over three years, but finally took effect in 1988. In 1994 the IWC introduced the Revised Management Scheme in order to balance the risk to individual species while allowing the highest number of whales to be caught. Although conservation groups opposed this, fearing a whaling quota being set, they could not prevent it being passed. While the full 1982 ban was still in force, however, Norway resumed limited commercial whaling after lodging formal objections to the IWC, and killed 581 minke whales between 1994 and 1996 (from an estimated population in the North Atlantic of 150,000); by 2006 Norway had raised its own annual quota to 1,052 minke whales. In addition, Japan has embarked on a series of research programmes (allowed by the IWC), and annually catches up to 1,070 minke whales, mainly from the Southern Ocean, but also from the north-western Pacific. In 2002 Iceland, who left the IWC in 1986, was accepted again as a member, while objecting to the IWC’s moratorium on commercial whaling; and in 2006 the country resumed commercial whaling. The IWC has also sanctioned four subsistence whaling operations by indigenous peoples: in the Russian Federation, where indigenous Siberians may catch 140 grey whales annually; in Alaska, where Inuit are allowed to land up to 67 bowhead whales annually; in Greenland, where 187 minke whales and 19 fin whales are caught annually; and in St Vincent and the Grenadines, where 4 (formerly 2) humpback whales may be caught annually by the islanders of Bequia. However, several populations remain endangered (numbering 500 or less), including most stocks of bowhead whales, western Pacific grey whales, northern right whales, and various stocks of blue whales.

The IWC funds some research and promotes and coordinates major international research programmes including ships surveys, acoustic and satellite tracking of populations, and studies on the effects of pollution, environmental changes, and whale-watching on the whales. The commission is also working towards international cooperation in conserving dolphins and porpoises. At its annual meeting in June 2003 the organization adopted the Berlin Initiative, which sets up a conservation committee and associated fund. Japan, Iceland, and Norway announced that they would not take part. In August, Iceland’s Marine Research Institute announced that it intended to kill 38 common minke whales during the autumn of 2003 to study the feeding ecology of the whales in Icelandic waters, with the research continuing after that. At the commission’s meeting in 2006, a resolution in favour of the eventual resumption of commercial whaling was narrowly passed. The resolution does not itself allow a return to commercial whaling, but was seen as a success by pro-whaling nations including Japan who wish to see the commission return to a role of regulating commercial whaling rather than engaging in conservation activities.