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1975
More than 20,000 people send off the first Greenpeace anti-whaling voyage from Vancouver, Canada. Activists stand between the whale and the harpoon as Greenpeace saves its first whales from Soviet whalers.1977
The first Australian Greenpeace anti-whaling protest occurs in waters off Albany, Western Australia. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser announces a federal investigation into Australia’s whaling.1979
Australia’s last whaling station is closed down. Whaling is banned within Australia’s 200 mile fishing zone. Australia becomes one of the first anti-whaling nations within the International Whaling Commission (IWC) - a then pro-whaling industry body.The IWC agrees to establish the Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
1982
The IWC becomes an anti-whaling body when it adopts a global moratorium on commercial whaling that will take effect in 1986.1983
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) bans the commercial trade in whale meat and confers protected status on the world’s great whales.1986
After 11 years of Greenpeace campaigning the global whaling moratorium comes into force.1987
Japan begins its so-called “scientific” whaling program.1990
Seven out of the nine remaining whaling nations agree to abandon the industry.1993
Norway lodges an objection to the moratorium and resumes commercial whaling, killing 500 minke whales per year.1994
The IWC approves the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary that is created to protect the great whales in their breeding grounds. Survey results show that over 5 million people go whale watching in 65 countries. Whale watching becomes more profitable than commercial whaling.1998
Working with Greenpeace, Brazil proposes the Southern Atlantic Whale Sanctuary.Australia and New Zealand propose the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary.
1999/2000
The Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, confronts Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. In 1999, the Greenpeace ship, Sirius, carries out similar work off the Norwegian coast.1999
Japan steps up its vote buying strategy at the IWC, and establishes a “blocking minority” to prevent the creation of a South Pacific Whale Sanctuary.2000
Japan and Norway attempt to remove the protected status of whales at the CITES meeting in Nairobi in April 2000. If successful this would pave the way for a return to international trade in whale products. They fail by a narrow margin.2000
Japan buys IWC member country votes to block the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary proposal.2001
Norway announces it will export whale meat and blubber despite international trade bans.Japan admits to influencing the votes of developing countries of the IWC.
Whale watching is now a thriving industry in 87 countries, generating an income of $1 billion worldwide each year.
Japan admits to using overseas aid to buy support from developing nations for a return to commercial whaling.
Greenpeace confronts the Japanese fleet and films a whale being harpooned in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
2002
Japan uses votes bought from 14 other nations to block whale sanctuaries and deny indigenous peoples subsistence quotas at the IWC meeting in Shimonoseki, Japan.Mexico creates the world’s largest national whale sanctuary - in all of its Exclusive Economic Zone in the Pacific, Atlantic and Caribbean Sea—to protect 21 species of cetaceans.
2002
Iceland is voted in as a full member of the IWC—despite refusing to follow the rules and despite their intention to resume whaling in 2006.Greenpeace issues an urgent global warning that Japan’s continued IWC vote buying will see commercial whaling return.
The International Convention for Migratory Species lists seven whale species as endangered or needing conservation.
2003
After years of sustained Greenpeace pressure the IWC plans a Conservation Committee focusing on human induced threats to whales, like global warming pollution and overfishing.Iceland resumes commercial whaling. However, in response to international and domestic pressure, combined with a lack of demand for whale meat, the quotas are radically reduced from 200 whales of three species, to 61 whales of one species over two years.
2004
The Greenpeace ship, Esperanza, visits Iceland meeting with whalers and whaling communities to promote the benefits of whale watching.2005
After Greenpeace occupies a proposed whale and dolphin meat factory site in Ulsan, South Korea, plans for the factory are put on hold and the IWC upholds the moratorium on commercial whaling.Japan and Norway both announce increases in their whaling quotas. Press reports suggest Japan will extend its Antarctic “scientific” whaling to include the endangered Humpback and Fin species in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
2006
Two Greenpeace ships, the Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise travel to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to confront Japanese whaling fleets as part of Greenpeace’s year-long ‘Defending Our Oceans’ campaign. Greenpeace spends two months at sea delaying, disrupting and documenting the hunt. Graphic images and footage of whaling are broadcast to the world.In April the financial backers of the Japanese whaling industry pull out of the whaling business following global pressure from consumers and green groups.
At the 58th IWC meeting in St Kitts, Japan loses five votes but also win one key vote that paves the way for the resumption of commercial whaling. Ten Greenpeace activists are arrested in a beach protest in St Kitts, and are later released and fined.
