Story

There are 90 species of cetaceans currently known on this planet. They differ on size, teeth and diet. However, only very few, three to be exact, are currently being hunted for commercial whaling reasons: Minke, Sei and Bryde’s whales. The very simple reason why these three whales are being hunted is that they live right off the coast of the coun- tries that catch them. Some other whales that were hunted for in the past are: Belugas, Narwhales, pilot, fin, grey, bowhead, humpback, blue whales and sperm whales.

The term whaling is extensive. It contains the killing of whales and the usage of the body parts. There are three different kinds of whaling:

1. Aboriginal subsistence whaling: Indigenous communities mainly do subsistence whaling. This type of whaling is more sustainable, because less whales are being caught, because the only reason the people hunt is for their own food and supplies. The IWC regulates the catch limits every six years in a meeting, but other than that, they do not restrict anything else. Canada, the United States of America, Russia, and Denmark/Greenland still conduct this type of whaling.
2. Special permit or scientific whaling: This kind of whaling is for research purposes. It asks for a permit to conduct research projects, which must be submitted to the IWC by the specific countries. However, the IWC is only allowed to advise, not to regulate these specific permits. This means they cannot decide a quota. The only three countries that have ever conducted this type of whaling are Japan, Iceland and Norway. However, both of them have now returned to another form of whaling, which is commercial whaling.
3. Commercial whaling: It means that the countries hunt and kill the whales to sell the meat and other whale products to businesses and other countries. In the matura paper, I will focus on the commercial whaling, as explained earlier.

Whaling has been conducted since the prehistoric time, but commercial whaling started in the 11th century in the Basque Country. The people started hunting whales in their waters, the Atlantic Ocean. A reason for why it started there was because the Basques have an old shipbuilding tradition. And strong ships are essential to transport large marine mammals. At that time, almost every part of the whale was used for a specific purpose:

1. The whale meat was used for food because it has high protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals.
2. The blubber which is also called adipose tissue, is a fat layer of tissue under all marine mammal's skin. This adipose tissue was used as an oil to fuel light.
3. The Baleen, from the Baleen whales, which are the whale's teeth (seen in the image below) that look like strings, were used to weave baskets and made into fishing lines.
4. Lastly, the bones were mainly used for toolmaking or ceremonial items, for example masks.

The Basque whale hunters hunted a specific whale species, the Atlantic North Caper, in their seas and traded its meat with other countries and firms. Today, this whale species is one of the most endangered whales in the world.

Some hundred years later, other European countries such as Denmark and the United Kingdom, and not much later, the USA also started commercial whaling.

The humpback whales and sperm whales were the next category of whales to be hunted for commercial whaling. Soon after the Minke and Sei whales were hunted, which are the whales that mostly get hunted currently.

There was a massive spike in commercial whaling after World War I and even more after World War II. After this spike, the IWC started discussing a new and better regulation, a type of moratorium, resulting in an impressive decline starting in the mid 1960ies.

In total, scientists believe, about 2,9 million whales got killed in the 20th century for commercial reasons. Many whale species have suffered greatly because of this massive hunting. For example, sperm whales have decreased to one-third of their pre-whaling population and blue whales to one-tenth.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) protects the whales. In particular, it regulates the numbers by defining an annual quota for each country. However, the IWC can only have full control over the international waters, not for areas in national shores. For that reason, the countries have more rights and can decide more freely what they want and can do in their so called Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). To calculate the catching quota, the IWC receives advice and calculations from its Scientific Committee on Sustainability. The IWC, therefore, governs the catches every year in the annual meetings. However, in recent years, the meetings have been bi-annual. In addition, the representatives discuss the quota for the respective countries, the aboriginal subsistence whaling, and the IWC financial status in the meetings

The IWC was negotiated by 15 countries in 1946 and established in 1948. It was set up by the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW). According to the ICRW, the IWC was established to manage the conservation of whale stock and the development of whaling. Today, the IWC has 89 member countries containing whaling and anti-whaling countries and is widely accepted to regulate whaling worldwide. However, the member countries are mostly separated into two groups: pro-whaling and anti-whaling. Japan and Norway, are part of the pro-whaling group and countries like Australia and the USA are part of the anti-whaling coalition.

In addition, there are also some neutral member countries like Switzerland. The IWC does not or has not only defined the quota and the prohibition, it also formed two sanctuary areas. The first one is in the Indian Ocean and was opened in 1979. The second one was established in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica in 1994. These areas were designed for the protection of the whales and eco-system restoration. In these sanctuaries, commercial whaling is prohibited by any country. However, Japan, which did not conduct commercial whaling for many years, was able to hunt there, because it was officially hunting for scientific reasons.

The most important and famous regulation the IWC decided is the moratorium for whale catches. In 1982, the IWC started discussing a moratorium, which was supposed to be a temporary ban on commercial whaling aiming to a kill-quota of zero. It came into force in 1986. Even though the kill-quota finally was not at zero, the number of whales worldwide still sunk rapidly from about 50’000 between 1981 and 1985 to less than 10’000 between 1986 and 1990. However, between 1985 and 2017, there were still a total of 54’909 commercial whaling kills.

In the 33rd meeting of IWC in the year 1982, the members discussed the proposals thoroughly made to end commercial whaling. The different proposals for this pause in commercial whaling were made by five bodies: Seychelles, UK, USA, France, and Australia. First, Seychelles suggested to the Technical Committee that there should be a three-year period where there is a zero-catch limit. This proposal was seconded by Australia, New Zealand, Oman, Sweden, and St. Lucia. However, Japan then intervened and stated that this proposal does not follow the Convention's rules and decisions.

On the other hand, Norway said that even though they do not believe the proposal is correct, they would be able to negotiate it. Spain also decided that if this proposal is executed, it would have to be carefully managed, and all whale species would have to have the same treatment. Iceland and the Republic of Korea opposed the proposal because they stated the same as Norway and Japan, which was that there was “a lack of a scientific basis as required under the Convention” (1982 Chairs Report p. 21).

As mentioned above, the IWC also established two sanctuaries in the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. The Scientific Committee made plans on what to do in the sanctuary in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.

Besides the IWC, other people, NGOs, and countries have tried to minimize commercial whaling, but most of them did not make it to the IWC and their bodies or on an international stage. A group of American scientists suggested reducing commercial whaling by paying the hunters for every whale they do not kill. The idea behind it was that the industry would still receive money and would not go bankrupt, but no or at least fewer whales will get killed. Greenpeace suggested another method in an article called "3 Ways We Can Shut Down the Japanese Government's Whaling Program" written in 2016. The article stated that a method could be to try and cut the fundings for the industry. Japan has misused funds intended for the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the earthquake and tsunami in 2011 were given to the whaling industry. In addition to that, the Japanese tax payers altogether also pay millions of yen every year so that the government can subsidize the industry. For these reasons, workers at Greenpeace think that if they can publicly expose these funds, there will be controversy, and they will stop the subsidization, which would make the industry collapse. However, since the article was written in 2016, there has been no significant decline in subsidizing in Japan. However, in 2021 the Japanese whaling industry has also tried to step away from the government's financial support by raising funds through crowdfunding and lending money. This intention was to get money for a new ship.

Some basic facts about Japan: The population in 2021 is around 126 million people living on about 378’000 square kilometers. 70% of the land is inhabited with mountains. The country has a parliamentary system, is a unitary state, and also a constitutional monarchy. The unemployment rate was at 3.1% in May 2021. The estimated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019 was 42’939 US dollars.

Japan was an IWC member from 1951 to 2019, and then decided to leave because the Japanese government did not agree with the decisions being taken by the IWC. After the moratorium started in the year 1986, the country switched from commercial whaling to scientific whaling. At first, the government decided to object to the moratorium, like many other countries, but the USA threatened the Japanese government. The USA told Japan that it would not be allowed to fish in their water if they formally object. This was related to a previous contract between the two countries. Japan wanted to keep fishing in the water around the USA, so it decided not to make the formal objection. However, a few years later, the USA still pulled back on the contract, and Japan could not fish in their water.

In this statement, Fynn Holm pointed out that a reason Japan might have stayed, was because it got scammed in some way by the USA. Despite the moratorium, Japanese whaling companies still sold the meat and made a profit. Therefore, Australia, and later New Zealand as well, sued Japan in 2010. Japan lost the court case in the year 2013 and had to revise its plans. Today, Japan is only allowed to engage in commercial whaling in their EEZ, containing 370 kilometers off its shore.

Even though Japan has a narrower body of water, the country still has a high quota of about 380 whales per year. The Japanese government sets the quota at the beginning of a fishing year (beginning of April) with a calculation. A calculation result is a specific number that does not harm the whale population but is still enough for the Japanese economy. Despite the Japanese exit from the IWC, the government still has to send in the number to the IWC, because it wants to know how many whales Japan kills in order to manage the other hunts from countries like Canada to calculate and decide the quota. The government nowadays does not subsidize the industry as much as during the period of scientific whaling. After Japan switched back to commercial whaling in the year 2017 (correct??), it is unknown whether the industry can survive if the government does not continue to subsidize the whalers with a high amount of tax money.

The whales slaughtered in Japan are Minke whales, Sei whales, and Bryde whales. In early 2021, the Japanese government published the plan to hunt 383 whales in total: 171 Minke, 187 Bryde's, and 25 Sei whales. According to the International Union of the Conservations of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, the Sei whales are endangered, with about 50’000 mature individuals left. Yet, according to the IUCN analysis in 2018, the population is increasing. This whale was Japan’s main target while whaling for scientific reasons (the early 2000s until 2017. The Minke is marked as near threatened, which is the second to last category on the IUCN Red List’s scale, and the Bryde got marked on the lowest, most minor concern. However, the IUCN red list researchers do not know the population trend of these last two species. Although the Minke population is not marked as dangerously low, some species subgroups are very low in population, mainly in the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, and the Yellow Sea. This is because of the long history of whaling in that area by Japan, and also South Korea.

Some brief facts about Norway: The population is at around 5,39 million people, living on about 385’200 square kilometers. The country is a monarchy but has a parliament and a minister, which decide the main laws for the country. Norway had a 5% unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2021. The estimated GDP in 2019 was 68‘344 US dollars.

The whaling history dates back to the 9th century with the Vikings, and whaling has been conducted throughout history until today. Norway has been in the IWC from the beginning, 1946 and is still a member, even though the country still conducts commercial whaling. It left the IWC in 1960 for one year as a protest against a decision that was made by the IWC against some thing the IWC decided. The whales killed in the Norwegian EEZ marine waters are Minke whales, and the area of the hunt is the northern Atlantic. Between 1993 and now, Norway has killed over 14'000 Minke whales. The industry calculates the quota by having the same starting quota every year and then adding the number of catches that were not made the year before, which is how the quota always increases. However, usually, about half of the quota number is caught. Many people say, they do not see commercial whaling in Norway as an industry. This was also said by Steinar Andresen in an e-mail to me: “You call it an ‘industry’ in Norway while there are only some 15 boats hunting whales a small part of the year, to me this can hardly be labelled an industry.“ Between the years 1982 and 1993, commercial whaling was stopped in Norway. The IWC insured regulations were overridden because Norway with Island and Russia managed to appeal to the moratorium with a formal objection 90 days after the moratorium which started in 1986. It objected, even though at that time commercial whaling was not conducted. This objection was able to be made 90 days after the moratorium was decided.

The Norwegian government does not subsidize the commercial whaling. However, the government does promote one type of meat every year, in 2017 it was minke meat. Many Norwegians see whaling as a tradition.

The demand for whale meat and products has been rising in Norway in the last few years. Not only are whale products sold in the own country, but about 230 tons of whale products are sold per year internationally, mainly to Japan where it is also used as fuel. Even though the demand is rising, it is still relatively low, which means the government has to find new ways to use whale meat and oil for all the whales they kill each year.