Whaling

Japanese whalers at work in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary

Overexploit, cheat, deplete - this is the story of the global whaling industry, a cycle of greed which drove one whale population after another toward oblivion in the first half of the last century, and led to former whalers' club the International Whaling Commission (IWC) being taken over by counties supporting conservation measures.

In 1986 a moratorium was established, effectively ending commercial whaling.

Despite being protected for over 20 years many of the great whale species - blue, fin, sei, sperm, bryde's, humpback and minke - are struggling to recover from the decades of massive depletion. Antarctic blue whales, for example, remain at only one percent of their former abundance.

Southern Ocean Weblog: read the Esperanza's crew diaries from last winter's Japanese whale hunt.

Whales are the largest mammals on the planet. Unlike fish they breed slowly, only giving birth every one or two years to a single calf which needs many years of nurturing before it can survive on its own, and takes even longer to reach sexual maturity. For these reasons whales can never recover quickly from over-exploitation.

In the past few years strenuous efforts have been made by a group of nations, led by Japan, Iceland and Norway, to regain control of the IWC for the whalers and resume commercial whaling. They have used two main tactics: first they issued licenses for increasing numbers of whales to be killed under the guise of 'scientific' research.

In 2006 the Government of Japan doubled its self-appointed 'scientific' quota, and announced its intention to kill 935 minke and 10 endangered fin whales in the Southern Ocean in the 2006/2007 whaling season alone. Fortunately they didn't get anywhere near this figure, as the tour ended in failure following the breakdown of their factory ship, Nishin Maru. To make up for the disappointment they raised the quota to hunt more whales than ever in 2007/8, including for the first time 50 threatened humpback whales.

The Southern Ocean is supposed to be a Whale Sanctuary, a place of safety for whales created by common consent at the annual IWC meeting in 1994. The presence of the Greenpeace ships Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise was able to limit, but not prevent, this slaughter.

The second tactic has been to use diplomatic pressure and incentives to recruit new pro-whaling members to the IWC. Japan in particular has been very successful at this, with all levels of its government participating in the process, from the Fisheries Department to the Foreign Minister, and even the Prime Minister.

Last year, for the first time, these efforts succeeded. Now their plan is to 'normalise' the IWC's activities, in other words return it to being a pro-whaling rather than conservation-minded organisation - and to increase the number and variety of whales they kill. They have invited all member states to an unofficial meeting in Tokyo to discuss ending the moratorium on commercial whaling, and want as many as possible to attend to give the meeting credibility.

It's easy to lay the blame for all this on these pro-whaling nations. But they have only been successful because of a lack of commitment and organisation from the other members of the IWC. Despite huge and consistent public support in Britain for a ban on all forms of whaling, our own government has made little effort to counteract Japan's massive pro-whaling campaign. In fact, Tony Blair recently ignored a simple request to personally write to key countries about the serious risks posed by the resumption of commercial whaling.

Japan may have the ships that fire the harpoons but our Prime Minister has done nothing to stop them. We need to let him know that this is unacceptable, and that there is no excuse.

Actions you can take now to save whales

The future of the world's great whales is decided at annual meetings of the Intenational Whailing Convention (IWC). Every year at IWC the Japanese Government delegation and other pro-whaling countries do everything they can to try to lift the moratorium on commercial whaling.

They must be stopped - and you can help. The key governments in the debate need to hear from you that you demand that the International Whaling Commission works to protect whales.

Sign up to Whale Mail and receive regular updates about the dangers faced by whales and how you can help to protect them.

Help fundraise for the whales.

Read more about the history of whaling » Whaling - the story so far