The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is a group that manages fishing in certain areas. It was created in 1946 through the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) to "help protect whale populations and ensure the whaling industry is managed properly."

As the main decision-making group of the convention, the IWC reviews and updates rules in the "Schedule to the Convention." These rules control how whaling is done worldwide. The rules include: fully protecting certain whale species; creating areas where whaling is not allowed (whale sanctuaries); setting limits on how many whales and their sizes can be taken; determining when and where whaling is allowed; and banning the capture of baby whales or adult whales with babies. The IWC also requires reports about whale catches and other data, and it supports scientific research on whales, including publishing results and encouraging studies on topics like how to humanely end the lives of whales.

In 2018, members of the IWC agreed through the "Florianópolis Declaration" that the IWC's goal is to protect whales and ensure their survival forever. They also aimed to help all whale populations recover to levels they had before industrial whaling began. In response, Japan announced on December 26, 2018, that it would leave the IWC because the group did not properly support sustainable hunting, which is one of its goals. Japan planned to restart commercial whaling in its own waters and exclusive economic zone starting in July 2019, but it would stop whaling in the Southern Hemisphere.

Structure and membership

The IWC was formed by an agreement among member countries to act as the only group in charge under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. This agreement was signed in 1946 to help protect whale populations and manage the whaling industry in a way that supports both the environment and the economy. The IWC's job is to regularly review and update the rules in the Convention. These rules control whaling by protecting certain whale species, creating areas where whaling is not allowed, setting limits on how many whales can be caught, and deciding when and where whaling can happen. The IWC also sets rules about how whaling is done, what tools can be used, and how catches are measured. According to its main document, the IWC must create rules to help protect whales, use whale resources wisely, and make sure these rules are based on scientific research.

The IWC's headquarters is in Impington, near Cambridge, England. The group's office publishes a journal, reports, press releases, and a meeting schedule. The IWC has three main committees: Scientific, Conservation, and Finance and Administration. A fourth committee, the Technical Committee, was created but no longer meets.

Membership in the IWC is not limited to countries that hunt whales. Since 2001, the number of IWC members has doubled, with about six new countries joining each year from 2002 to 2008. As of February 2024, there are 88 members, including countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, the Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark (which also includes the Faroe Islands and Greenland), Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Eritrea, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, the Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Grenada, the Republic of Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, South Korea, Kiribati, Laos, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mali, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Nauru, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Palau, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Togo, Tuvalu, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uruguay.

Since 2012, the IWC has held meetings every two years, in September or October. Each country that is part of the IWC sends one representative (called a Commissioner) to these meetings. These representatives may bring experts or advisors with them. Meetings are often very divided, with countries that support whaling and those that oppose it having very different opinions. The IWC's rules allow non-member countries and international organizations to attend meetings and be represented by observers if they submit a written request to the IWC's office 30 days before the meeting or if they have attended previous meetings. Non-governmental organizations that operate in more than three countries may also attend meetings.

In 2012, the IWC agreed to change from holding annual meetings to holding meetings every two years. However, the Scientific Committee continues to meet once a year. When both the IWC and Scientific Committee meetings occur in the same year, they are at least 100 days apart. This time allows members to read and understand the Scientific Committee's reports before the IWC meeting begins.

Annual meetings

The International Whaling Commission has held meetings every year since 1949. These meetings are called "annual meetings." In addition, the IWC has held special meetings at times when needed, but these are not annual meetings.

In recent years, these meetings have received attention from the news because more people are opposing whaling.

The IWC has also held special meetings on several occasions. Between 1949 and 2007, there were five such meetings.

Starting in 2012, the IWC decided that its annual meetings would occur every two years instead of every year. However, the IWC Scientific Committee would continue to meet annually.

The IWC meeting in 2005 took place in Ulsan, South Korea, from June 20 to 24, 2005. At this meeting, several important issues were discussed and voted on. Three proposals from Japan were defeated:

• A proposal to use secret ballots for voting. Some people believed this might make voting less clear for Japan’s close allies.
• A proposal to restart commercial whaling. This required a three-quarters majority to pass, but it was defeated 29 votes to 23.
• A proposal to remove a protected area for whales in the Southern Ocean. This was defeated 30 votes to 25.

Australia introduced a resolution asking Japan to stop increasing its scientific whaling program. This resolution was supported by 30 votes to 25. Some people argue that scientific whaling is a way to hide commercial whaling. New Zealand’s Minister of Conservation, Chris Carter, said the term "scientific whaling" is unfair. Japan claims its research helps scientists understand whale management. Japan has not ruled out leaving the IWC, but this would require approval from the Japanese parliament.

The IWC meeting in 2006 was held in St Kitts and Nevis from June 16 to 20. Pro-whaling countries tried to change the 1982 ban on whaling but failed. However, they succeeded in shifting the IWC’s focus from protecting whales to managing commercial whaling.

On the first day of the 2006 meeting, two proposals by Japan were defeated by small margins. One proposal to remove small whales from IWC oversight was defeated 30–32. Another proposal for secret ballots was defeated 30–33. Some countries, including Costa Rica, Gambia, Peru, and Togo, were not present or had not finished registration procedures before voting.

Greenland reduced the number of fin whales it hunted after the IWC Scientific Committee advised that catching 19 whales might not be safe. This left Greenland short of its whale meat quota. Greenland investigated humpback and bowhead whale populations, possibly to hunt them to meet its quota. This action worried anti-whaling countries and groups.

The RMS (Regional Management Scheme) was discussed again but no progress was made. The IWC chairman, Henrik Fischer, said discussions on RMS were stuck and would be closed on June 18 if no new ideas were shared.

Japan proposed a plan to allow its coastal whaling communities to hunt a small number of minke whales from the "O" stock. After discussion, the proposal was defeated 30 votes for and 31 votes against, with four abstentions.

Debates continued about the Southern Ocean sanctuary and a new sanctuary proposed by France in the Caribbean. A vote to remove the Southern Ocean sanctuary was defeated 28–33 with five abstentions. France’s proposal for a Caribbean sanctuary was criticized by Caribbean nations for not consulting other countries first. The proposal was not voted on.

The St Kitts and Nevis Declaration was discussed and passed with 33 votes in favor, 32 against, and one abstention. This was the first time in over 20 years that the IWC supported commercial whaling. The Declaration stated the 1982 whaling ban was no longer needed.

1982 moratorium

In the 1970s, a global movement to protect whales began. In 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm suggested a ten-year pause on commercial whaling to help whale populations recover. Reports from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in 1977 and 1981 showed many whale species were at risk of disappearing.

At the same time, several countries that did not hunt whales or supported anti-whaling efforts joined the International Whaling Commission (IWC). These countries eventually outnumbered those that hunted whales. Countries like the United States, which had once hunted whales, became strong supporters of ending whaling. They pushed the IWC to update its rules and use new scientific information about whales.

On July 23, 1982, IWC members voted to pause commercial whaling. The vote passed with 25 votes in favor, seven against, and five abstentions. Japan, Norway, Peru, and the Soviet Union (later replaced by Russia) objected because the pause was not based on advice from the IWC’s Scientific Committee. Japan and Peru later withdrew their objections. Japan’s withdrawal happened after the United States threatened to reduce Japan’s fishing rights in U.S. waters. However, by 1988, the United States had already removed Japan’s fishing limits. After this, Japan began whaling under the name of scientific research.

In 2002, Iceland rejoining the IWC with a reservation to the moratorium (Iceland had left the IWC in 1992). Many IWC members did not accept Iceland’s reservation as valid. Italy, Mexico, and New Zealand do not recognize the moratorium as active between their countries and Iceland. None of these countries has challenged Iceland’s membership in the IWC.

The moratorium only stops commercial whaling. Whaling for scientific research or for aboriginal subsistence (traditional hunting by Indigenous communities) is still allowed under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW). However, environmental groups argue that some scientific whaling is a cover for commercial whaling, which is banned.

Since 1994, Norway has hunted whales commercially, and Iceland began commercial hunting in September 2006. Since 1986, Japan has hunted whales under scientific research permits. The United States and other countries allow whaling for aboriginal subsistence. Norway protested against zero catch limits in 1992 and is not bound by them. Anti-whaling groups accuse Japan’s scientific whaling of hiding commercial hunting. Japan says that anti-whaling countries refuse to accept simple head counts of whale populations as proof of recovery, so Japan continues studying whale populations. Japan also says IWC rules require that whale meat from scientific whaling not be wasted. Japan has objected to U.S. aboriginal subsistence whaling, partly as a response to U.S. objections to aboriginal whaling in some Japanese fishing communities.

In May 1994, the IWC created the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, covering 11,800,000 square miles (31,000,000 square kilometers). The vote had 23 in favor, one opposed (Japan), and six abstentions.

On September 13, 2018, IWC members met in Florianópolis, Brazil. They rejected Japan’s proposal to restart commercial whaling. The “Florianópolis Declaration” stated the IWC’s goal is to protect whales and ensure their recovery to pre-whaling levels. It also said lethal research methods are unnecessary. The agreement, which is not legally binding, was supported by 40 countries, with 27 pro-whaling countries voting against. Limited hunting by Indigenous communities is still allowed under the resolution.

On December 26, 2018, Japan announced it would leave the IWC because it believed the IWC had failed to promote sustainable hunting, one of the IWC’s goals. Japan said it would resume commercial whaling in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zones starting in July 2019. However, Japan would stop whaling in the Antarctic Ocean, the northwest Pacific Ocean, and the Australian Whale Sanctuary.

Enforcement under the IWC

The IWC is an international group that works voluntarily and is not supported by a treaty. This means the IWC has important practical limits on its power. First, any member country can choose to leave the group and not follow its rules if they wish. Second, any member country can refuse to follow a specific IWC rule by formally objecting to it within 90 days after the rule is introduced. This is common in international agreements because it is better to keep countries in the agreement than to have them leave completely. Third, the IWC cannot force countries to follow its decisions by using penalties.

In 1971, Australia and South Africa agreed to send observers to each other’s land-based whaling stations to ensure these stations followed IWC rules (this was called the International Observer Scheme, or IOS). A similar agreement was made between Canada, Iceland, and Norway for the North Atlantic region. Soon after, Japan and the United States signed a similar agreement for the North Pacific Ocean. The introduction of the IOS improved the quality of catch data reported, according to the Royal Society. This happened even though no major changes were made to the rules, suggesting that false reporting may have been common in Japan’s whaling industry before the IOS was started.

Politics

There has been concern that the disagreement between groups wanting to use whales again and those wanting to protect all whales has created serious problems for the IWC. Oran Young and eight other experts say that changes in the IWC's rules are likely and that whaling for human use will continue, whether whalers follow new international rules, join other groups like NAMMCO, or create a mix of systems. The BBC reports that conservationists believe the IWC should focus more on issues like whales being hit by ships, pollution, climate change, and threats to species like the baiji dolphin. However, the IWC cannot do this until the issue of whaling is resolved.

Pro-whaling governments say the IWC makes decisions based on politics and emotions, not science. They argue that the IWC has moved away from its original goal of managing whales and instead tries to protect whales completely from being killed for commercial purposes. Non-IWC whaling countries share similar views. Canada left the IWC after the moratorium was passed, saying the ban was not fair compared to rules that allowed safe whale harvests.

After the moratorium started in 1986, the IWC's Scientific Committee studied whale populations and suggested that 2,000 minke whales could be caught yearly without harming their numbers. However, the IWC kept the ban, saying formulas for safe catches needed more review. In 1991, the IWC adopted a computer method called the Revised Management Procedure (RMP) to set safe catch limits. Even though this method allowed for some whaling, the moratorium was not lifted. The IWC said it needed to agree on data standards, survey guidelines, and monitoring systems before using the RMP.

The IWC approved the RMP in 1994 but delayed its use until an inspection system was created. This system, called the Revised Management Scheme (RMS), has not been agreed on by member countries. Australia is the only IWC member opposing the RMS and does not join related discussions. Anti-whaling groups like Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace also oppose the RMS.

Ray Gambell, the IWC's former secretary, agreed that some whaling could happen without harming minke whales. In 1993, Dr. Philip Hammond, head of the Scientific Committee, resigned in protest over what he saw as ignoring scientific advice. That same year, Norway became the only country to restart commercial whaling, saying it opposed the moratorium.

The IWC's goal, as written in its constitution, is to protect whale populations for future generations. Originally, only 15 whaling countries were members. However, since the 1970s and 1980s, many non-whaling countries, including landlocked ones like Switzerland and Mongolia, joined. This change was led by Sir Peter Scott, who called the IWC a "butchers' club" and campaigned for more anti-whaling members. This effort helped pass the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.

Since the moratorium, support for it has dropped from 75% to a 50-50 split. Some countries that once supported the ban now side with pro-whaling groups. Anti-whaling groups and some governments claim Japan has offered aid to poorer countries in exchange for their support in IWC votes. Japan says this accusation is unfair, as its aid goes to many countries, not just pro-whaling ones. Japan has given $320 million in aid to countries like Antigua and Barbuda and others. Caribbean nations often support Japan in IWC votes, even though they admit the rules might affect their fishing. Pacific countries' votes vary, as they are influenced by both Japan and anti-whaling countries like New Zealand and Australia. Greenpeace says Japan's aid and voting patterns are connected. These claims are based on public statements and voting records. In 2005, The Environmental Investigation Agency asked Lord Ashcroft to help Belize support anti-whaling efforts, and it was reported that Ashcroft paid Belize's IWC fees.

Both sides accuse each other of using unfair tactics to influence the IWC. Edwin Snagg, an IWC commissioner from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said small and developing countries feel disrespected, as they are seen as easy to influence. The BBC reported that no developing countries support the anti-whaling stance.