{"id":18307,"date":"2018-09-10T13:47:06","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T13:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=18307"},"modified":"2019-11-06T09:48:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:48:02","slug":"history-commercial-whaling-greenpeace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/18307\/history-commercial-whaling-greenpeace\/","title":{"rendered":"A brief history of commercial whaling and Greenpeace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commercial whaling devastated the world\u2019s biggest whale species, pushing some of them to the very brink of extinction in the first half of the 20th Century. Whaling for meat, oil, or whalebone was not a new, but explosive harpoons and industrial factory ships plundering the seas for whales, were. They had an even more catastrophic impact than what had come in centuries before.<\/p>\n

It was the realisation that catches were declining that led to the creation, by whaling nations, of an organisation that would become the \u2018International Whaling Commission<\/a>\u2019 (IWC).<\/p>\n

\"Whaling

IWC meeting. Brighton, UK<\/p><\/div>\n

When they first got together they realised that the ways that different countries were recording what they catch \u2014 even what they called \u2018whales\u2019 \u2014 didn\u2019t match up. Since the whales being hunted at the time were baleen and sperm whales, they became known as the \u2018Great Whales<\/a>\u2019, and fell under the IWC\u2019s responsibility, leaving a lot of other animals we know as \u2018whales\u2019 not covered by that definition.<\/p>\n

The IWC was set up in 1946, and it took 20 years for the countries involved to agree to stop killing blue whales <\/a>because there were virtually none left. As the biggest of the whales, they had been relentlessly hunted out first. It was the first global ban on any whaling to happen.<\/p>\n

Then, in the mid 1970s, Greenpeace\u2019s early whaling campaign shone a spotlight on the industry in a way that had never happened before; showing the public images of whales being killed sparked a movement and a sea-change in popular opinion against whaling.<\/p>\n

\"Rainbow

Rainbow Warrior crew holding banner “Save the Whales”, 1978.<\/p><\/div>\n

IWC had to change. After over a decade of committed campaigning the \u2018Save the Whales\u2019 movement triumphed when the IWC voted in 1982 for a moratorium (ban) commercial whaling.<\/p>\n

That ban came into force in 1986 and is one of the defining conservation successes of the last hundred years; marking the virtual end of large-scale whaling around the world. It was also a ground-breaking agreement between countries to control what happens on the \u2018high seas\u2019; the areas beyond national boundaries.<\/p>\n

Since 1986 we have learned a lot about humanity\u2019s growing impact on the oceans, and we have carelessly unleashed a whole new range of threats at the world\u2019s remaining whale populations. Our whales must contend with the impacts of climate change, habitat loss, overfishing, fisheries entanglement, noise disturbance, toxic pollution, and now the growing scourge of plastic filling our seas.<\/p>\n

Yet, since the moratorium was announced it has been threatened and undermined. Using objections, loopholes, and the pretence of \u2018scientific\u2019 whaling, a few nations have continued hunting whales commercially to this day. Though it might not make any environmental or economic sense, there are those who simply want the ban lifted, and to once again legitimise whaling on the world\u2019s high seas, our global commons.<\/p>\n

Commodifying large, and slow growing animals has historically always led to them being overhunted. Just look at the fate of rhinos and elephants. Today the world\u2019s remaining whales need more protections, not less, and the IWC really needs to be able to focus on addressing threats to critically endangered species of whales, dolphins and porpoises rather than an endless debate on commercial whaling.<\/p>\n

The political reality though is that the ban on whaling is under threat, and if it falls then it will likely do so, not because the \u2018pro whaling\u2019 lobby won the argument, but because the \u2018pro whales\u2019 governments didn\u2019t put enough resources or political capital into whale conservation.<\/p>\n

We can all help change that, by making sure our politicians know what we think.<\/p>\n

\"Save

Several petition boxes are passed along a line of Greenpeace supporters at an anti-whaling rally on Parliament grounds. The petition is signed by 53,000 New Zealanders and calls on the government to protect the future of the world\u2019s whales.<\/p><\/div>\n

Whales belong in the ocean, and are a vital part of making it work properly \u2014 storing carbon, recycling nutrients and mixing layers of ocean while they do. Our seas are poorer and weaker without whales, and the world would be too. So let\u2019s not go backwards on whale conservation now.<\/p>\n

In a world where our whales face so many other threats \u2014 the one thing we can, and should, stop immediately is commercial whaling. So let\u2019s agree to stop talking about undoing the ban, and get on with all the other urgent conservation challenges instead.<\/p>\n

Willie Mackenzie is an Oceans Campaigner with Greenpeace International<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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