History of the IWC

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International Whaling Commission Logo

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was set up by the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW)^[1] on 2 December, 1946 to promote and maintain whale fishery stocks.

From its inception until the late 1960s, the IWC attempted to maintain world commercial whaling through a system of quotas in an effort to allow individual whale stocks to replenish in number. During the first twenty-five years of the IWC's existence, the organisation oversaw the continued overexploitation and depletion of whale stocks. The recommendations of the IWC Scientific Committee at that time, environmentalists allege, were distorted and ignored by the whaling states.^[2] As a result, "whale stocks were regularly over-exploited, and scientific advice concerning sustaining catch limits was frequently ignored. When populations were finally protected from further hunting, it was usually after they had already collapsed."^[3]

It was revealed in 1994 that the Soviet Union had been systematically underreporting the number of whales it took. For example, from 1948 to 1973, the Soviet Union killed 48,477 humpback whales rather than the 2,710 it officially reported to the IWC.^[4] On the basis of this new information, the IWC stated that it would have to rewrite its catch figures for the last forty years.^[5] According to Ray Gambell, the Secretary of the IWC at the time, the organisation had raised its suspicions of underreporting with the former Soviet Union, but it did not take further action because it could not interfere with national sovereignty.^[6]

The 1970s saw the beginning of the global anti-whaling movement. In 1972 the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment^[7] at Stockholm adopted a proposal that recommended a ten-year moratorium on commercial whaling to allow whale stocks to recover.^[8] The reports of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species^[9] in 1977 and 1981 identified many species of whales as being in danger of extinction. Finally, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, completed in 1982, provided inter alia that "states shall cooperate with a view to the conservation of marine mammals and in the case of whales shall in particular work through the appropriate international organizations for the conservation, management and study."^[10]

A number of non-whaling and anti-whaling states joined the Convention and eventually gained a majority over number of pro-whaling nations. Nations like the United States, previously considered major whaling forces, became strong proponents of the anti-whaling cause. These nations called for the IWC to reform its policies and to incorporate newly discovered scientific data regarding whales in its proposed regulations.^[11]

The 1986 moratorium

On 23 July 1982 the IWC voted with the necessary three-quarters majority to implement a pause on commercial whaling by adding the following paragraph to the schedule:

Not withstanding the other provisions of paragraph 10, catch limits for the killing for commercial purposes of whales from all stocks for the 1986 coastal and the 1985/86 pelagic seasons and thereafter shall be zero. This provision will be kept under review, based upon the best scientific advice, and by 1990 at the latest the Commission will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the effects of this decision on whale stocks and consider modification of this provision and the establishment of other catch limits. ^[12]

The moratorium passed by a 25 to 7 vote with 5 abstentions.^[13]

Japan, Norway, Peru and the Soviet Union (later replaced by Russia) lodged objections, since the moratorium was not based on advice from the Scientific Committee. Japan and Peru later withdrew their objections. In 2002 Iceland was allowed to rejoin IWC with a reservation to the moratorium (Iceland withdrew from IWC in 1992), but this reservation is not recognised as a valid objection by Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Monaco, Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA. Italy, Mexico and New Zealand also objected to the reservation and noted that they do not consider the Convention as being in force between their countries and Iceland. None of these countries however, have mounted any legal challenge to Iceland's membership of the IWC.^[14]

However, the Convention grants two exemptions: scientific whaling and aboriginal whaling. Since 1994, Norway, has been whaling commercially and Iceland began hunting commercially in September 2006. Since 1986, Japan has been whaling under scientific research permits. The U.S. and several other nations are whaling under aboriginal whaling auspices. Norway lodged a protest to the zero catch limits in 1992 and are not bound by them. Anti whaling countries and lobbies accuse Japan's scientific whaling as being a front for the Japanese fondness for whale meat. The Japanese government argue that alleged refusal of anti whaling nations to accept simple head count of whale population as measure of recovery of whale species justifies their continuing studies on sex and age of population distributions, and further point out that IWC regulations specifically require that whale meat obtained by scientific whaling does not go to waste. Japan, on the other hand, has been raising objection to U.S. aboriginal subsistence whaling, generally seen to be in retaliation to anti Whaling nation's (including U.S.) objection to aboriginal subsistence whaling for several Japanese fishing communities which traditionally hunted whales until the imposition of the moratorium.

In May 1994, the IWC also voted to create an 11.8 million square mile sanctuary for whales in the Southern Ocean.^[15] The vote to adopt the sanctuary resolution was twenty-three in favor, one opposed and six abstaining.

See also

• International Whaling Commission

References

1. ^ International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, with Schedule of Whaling Regulations, 2 December 1946, 62 Stat. 1716, 161 UNTS 72.
2. ^ William C. Burns, "The International Whaling Commission and the Future of Cetaceans: Problems and Prospects" (1997) 8 Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy 31 at 31.
3. ^ Alexander Gillespie, "The Ethical Question in the Whaling Debate" (1997) 9 Georgia International Environmental Law Review 355 at 355.
4. ^ Natalie Angier, "DNA Tests Find Meat of Endangered Whales for Sale in Japan", New York Times, Sept. 13, 1994, at C4.
5. ^ David Hearst, "Soviet Files Hid Systematic Slaughter of World Whale Herds", Gazette (Montreal), Feb. 12, 1994, at D9.
6. ^ David Williams, "We Didn't Know About the Whale Slaughter", Agence Fr. Presse, Feb. 23, 1994.
7. ^ Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment, U.N. Doc. A/Conf.49/14/Rev.1, 11 I.L.M. 1416 (1972).
8. ^ Stockholm Action Plan, Recommendation 33, UN Doc. A/CONF.49/14/Rev.1, 11 I.L.M. 1421 (1972).
9. ^ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ofWild Fauna and Flora, Mar. 6, 1973, 27 U.S.T. 1087, 993 U.N.T.S. 243
10. ^ United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Dec. 10, 1982, 1833 U.N.T.S. 3.
11. ^ Judith Berger-Eforo, "Sanctuary for the Whales: Will This be the Demise of the International Whaling Commission or a Viable Strategy for the Twenty-First Century?" (1996) 8 Pace International Law Review 439 at 442.
12. ^ International Whaling Commission Schedule, para. 10(e)).
13. ^ The countries voting in favor of the moratorium included Antigua, Australia, Belize, Costa Rica, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Oman, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Senegal, the Seychelles, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The seven countries voting against the measure were Brazil, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Peru, South Korea and the USSR. Chile, China, the Philippines, South Africa and Switzerland abstained.
14. ^ Iceland and her re-adherence to the Convention after leaving in 1992. Retrieved on 2006-11-10.
15. ^ Debora MacKenzie, "Whales win southern sanctuary", New Scientist, 4 June, 1994, at 7.

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