End Commercial Whaling

Reinforce the IWC’s Global Moratorium to Protect Cetaceans in the 21st Century.

Despite the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, three countries continue to hunt whales for commercial purposes, killing more than 44,000 whales since 1986.

This report, produced by EIA in partnership with AWI, WDC, ProWildlife and OceanCare, describes whaling by Japan, Iceland and Norway and the need for the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and its contracting governments to take stronger action to ensure compliance with the moratorium.

Commercial whaling causes suffering to thousands of animals, deprives the marine environment and coastal communities of the multiple ecological and economic benefits that whales provide and undermines the conservation of populations that face ever-increasing threats from other human activities.

It is time for commercial whaling to end and EIA is calling on the IWC to reaffirm the moratorium’s vital role in the conservation of all cetaceans by adopting a Resolution on the International Legal Obligations in Commercial Whaling, proposed to the 69th meeting of the IWC (IWC69) by the European Union