Why does whaling occur

We work at a local level and across a broad range of international organisations to address and reduce threats to cetaceans. In doing so, WWF acknowledges the widely varied cultural attitudes toward the conservation and management of whales. We work to minimise negative human impacts from commercial exploitation, marine pollution , climate change , ship strikes , fisheries bycatch, noise pollution , and other human-caused threats.

WWF opposes commercial whaling, now and until WWF is convinced that the governments of the world have brought whaling under international control, with a precautionary and conservation-based enforceable management and compliance system adhered to by the whaling nations.

Norway broke the moratorium in and resumed commercial whaling. Since then they have taken over 6, minke whales under objection. Click here for more. Archive Content Please note: This page has been archived and its content may no longer be up-to-date. Toggle navigation. Language English. Whaling Whaler demonstrating a harpoon gun in Norway. Great whales are still recovering from a history of whaling.

Minke meat largely appeals to tourists who can order it at Icelandic restaurants. The business has even incorporated whale into beer and luxury dog food, and in it was forced to take a long and circuitous route to avoid European ports that blocked passage of its ships. Intrigued by the film, I recently caught up with Zwick to discuss it. My uncle is a marine biologist conservationist.

He actually informed me about what was taking place in Iceland. I decided to go and was pretty shocked by the access that I was granted—and decided that somebody needs to tell this story.

When I found out that 52 percent of Icelanders still supported whaling in , I really wanted to hear why. Iceland is the only country in the world to hunt the endangered finback whale, which is very different from the commercial minke whaling that takes place in Norway and Japan.

Norway and Iceland openly admit to it being commercial whale hunting, but no one seems to give it much attention.

The International Whaling Commission designated a scientific committee that spent a lot of time coming up with this number of 46 fin whales that would be established as a sustainable amount of whales that could be killed each season.

At one point, it probably was profitable for Icelanders, for his company. And he just has this huge propaganda policy. He gets kids at a really young age to come and start working for him in the whaling stations, and he really tries to ingrain this nationalistic sentiment into them and get everybody on board with continuing his family practice.

So this business is huge, and seeing a whale alive in the wild is more more valuable for somebody going to Iceland than trying it on their dinner plate.

But then you have these tourists coming to Iceland, going whale watching, and then getting off the boat and actually trying this whale meat. They gained independence in , and they want to set their own rules.

And they get really heated about it, and they have pride about it. I want the film to be able to answer questions and educate people about the illegal whale hunting taking place in Iceland. Send tips, feedback, and story ideas to ngwildlife natgeo. All rights reserved.

Share Tweet Email. Like other whaling nations, Japan argues hunting and eating whales are part of its culture. A number of coastal communities in Japan have indeed hunted whales for centuries but consumption only became widespread after World War Two when other food was scarce. From the late s to the mids whale was the single biggest source of meat in Japan but since become a niche product again.

Beyond that, in its miles km exclusive economic zone and of course the high seas, the country is bound by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Article 65 of said convention mandates that "states shall co-operate with a view to the conservation" of whales and "shall in particular work through the appropriate international organizations for their conservation, management and study". Having left the IWC, Japan is no longer part of any such international organisation and that "directly raises questions issues whether or not Japan would be consistent with the convention," Mr Rothwell explains.

It's not clear if any country would try to bring Japan to court over this - in its defence, Japan might argue that for years it did try to co-operate within the IWC without any results. Even if there were to be a ruling or injunction against Tokyo, there'd be no mechanism to enforce it. The ministry will allow for the hunting of three species: minke, Bryde's and sei whales.

Sei whale are classified as endangered but their numbers are increasing. So in terms of numbers, Japan's commercial whaling will have only a minimal impact. In fact, some defenders of whaling argue that whale meat has a smaller carbon footprint than pork or beef.

Conservationist groups like Greenpeace or Sea Shepherd remain critical of Japan's resumption of whaling but say there are no concrete plans yet to tackle the country over this.

Japan "is out of step with the international community", Sam Annesley, executive director at Greenpeace Japan, said in a statement, urging Tokyo to abandon its hunting plans. Besides the question of stock sustainability, a key argument against the hunt is that harpooning whales leads to a slow and painful death. Modern hunting methods, though, aim to kill whales instantly and it backers say the near-global anti-whaling sentiment is deeply hypocritical.

But even if Japan does defy the criticism and stick with whaling, there's a good chance the contentious issue will gradually die down by itself. Japanese demand for whale meat has long been on the decline and the industry is already being subsidised. Eventually, commercial whaling might be undone by simple arithmetic.

Showbiz whales arrive at Iceland sanctuary.