The IWC was created to undertake the business of the Convention. There were 15 initial signatories but today it has 89 members. The 70th anniversary provides a useful moment to reflect on how this international agreement has evolved over seven decades, its importance and EIA’s contribution to its work
Some coastal communities view whales as the guardians of the ocean, a special value attached to the marine giants which is not misplaced. Whales provide incredible services for the ocean and coastal communities, playing a role deemed so important that some scientists have coined them “ecosystem engineers”
The Environmental Investigation Agency was born out of a ground-breaking whaling investigation and, almost three-and-a-half decades later, our Ocean work remains a central pillar of what we do
Five years ago we secured what is probably the fastest campaign win in our history when we sought to pressure Amazon to end all sales of whale products. Amazon had previously been unresponsive, we anticipated the likelihood of a fairly lengthy process as we engaged the company to persuade it to do the right thing
TODAY (December 2) is the 70th anniversary of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), signed in Washington DC in 1946 and entering into force on November 10, 1948. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was set up to undertake the business of the Convention, from offices in Cambridge, UK
Although the commercial hunting of large whales was banned in 1986, Japan, Norway and Iceland continue to exploit loopholes to kill whales and trade whale products while continuing their efforts to undermine and ultimately overturn the ban. Recent years have seen a worrying rise in international trade in whale products.