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Whaling Today
By Meghan E. Marrero and Stuart Thornton
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
In 1946, several countries joined to form the International
Whaling Commission (IWC). The IWC’s purpose is to prevent
overhunting of whales. Its original regulations, however, were loose,
and quotas were high. Whale stocks continued to decline. The IWC
eventually established whaling-free sanctuaries in the Indian Ocean
(1979) and the ocean surrounding Antarctica (1994).
The IWC called for a moratorium on commercial whaling in
1982. Both Japan and Norway voted against this policy. Today,
Norway supports hunting minke whales for meat. Japan allows whaling
for scientific purposes, although many experts question if more whales
are taken than are necessary. Meat from whales killed for research is
sold as food.
Many species of whale have benefitted from the IWC’s
moratorium. Dave Weller, a research biologist at NOAA’s Southwest
Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, says the eastern
Pacific gray whale population has recovered.
“I think there is pretty good evidence that a moratorium on
hunting has allowed certain populations to recover from depleted
status when they were being whaled,” he says.
According to Weller, the IWC’s moratorium on whale hunting
is one of two major steps the organization is taking.
“The other thing that the IWC has very successfully done is
to collect information and provide analysis of data to help us
understand the status of various populations that in some cases we
knew very little about,” he says.
Despite the general moratorium, limited whaling is permitted
to indigenous cultures.
“In the United States, the Inuit Eskimos in the north slope of
Alaska, in Barrow, Alaska, still hunt for bowhead whales,” Weller says.
“There is a request by the Makah Indian tribe, which is in northern
Washington state, to resume gray whale hunting, which they had
traditionally done. But that’s pending deliberations right now.”
Source: http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/news/
(Adapted)