Biodiversity and Conservation: A Hypertext Book by Peter J. Bryant

Chapter 7: WHALES AND WHALING 

WHALING
Types of Whale
History of Whaling
Modern Whaling
International Whaling Commission
Moratorium on commercial whaling
Recovery of some populations
Revised Management Procedure
Loopholes in the IWC Moratorium
Japanese whaling
Illegal whaling
Norway's Minke Whale Hunt
U. S. Statutes Supporting IWC Decisions
The Southern Ocean Sanctuary
Small Cetaceans
Cruelty in Whaling
Whaling for Subsistence
Laws Protecting Marine Mammals

Registered UCI students: view the slide show for the first part of this chapter or download it: http://darwin.bio.uci.edu:80/~sustain/protected/chap7slides.ppt

International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling
Controversy swells around whaling commission meeting - 6-29-2000 Resolutions of the 2000 Meeting of the International Whaling Commission

Recovery of some populations

The IWC moratorium meant the end of most commercial whaling. As a result, many species seem to be recovering, at least in some parts of their range. In addition to Gray whales, Blue and Humpback whales are being seen in increasing numbers off the coast of Southern California: 

Population estimates, California coast to 300 miles
Species	1979	1991
Blue whale	500	2049
Humpback whale	88	607

Small Cetaceans

One of the most important issues at recent meetings of the IWC has been an attempt, by the U.S. and other nations, to have the IWC regulate the catch of small cetaceans - mainly dolphins and porpoises. This is an urgent issue now as Japan has been killing so many dolphins for meat that some species are threatened. In 1988, 39,000 Dall's porpoise were taken by Japan, and in 1989 31,475 were taken -out of a total stock of 105,000! The meat is being used as a supplement to whale meat. 12,396 Dall's porpoise were killed by the Japanese in 1995 and 18,000 in 1998.  In 1999, Japan agreed to buy 200 tons of meat and blubber from Russian beluga whales (white whales), potentially launching the first-ever international commercial hunt of beluga whales.

Cruelty in Whaling

The whaling industry concerns itself only with whales as populations and as exploitable resources. Many conservation organizations oppose whaling because they don't want to see any more whale stocks driven to extinction. In addition, many anti-cruelty organizations and individuals oppose all kinds of whaling (commercial, subsistence, and scientific) because of the cruel methods used to kill whales (either explosive harpoons or "cold" harpoons).

Illegal whaling

Another major problem in protecting whale species has been illegal whaling, which can often go undetected for many years. It was recently reported that the Soviet whaling fleet, operating from 1948 to 1973 in the southern hemisphere, reported taking 2,710 humpback whales but actually took over 48,000.  The total catch, of several species, is thought to have been over 100,000.  In some cases they built ships with false bottoms so they could carry a lot more cargo than the inspectors could see. This illegal hunting makes management plans ineffective and is probably responsible for the failure of many humpback whale stocks and of the entire blue whale population in the southern hemisphere to recover.  The Australian humpback whale population is starting to recover and is now up to about 5,000 animals.

Molecular biologists have analyzed samples of whale meat sold in Japan as kujira or sashimi (Baker and Palumbi, 1994). The only type of whale meat that could have been obtained legally since the moratorium was Minke whale, but using DNA tests the biologists have found samples containing blue whale, humpback whale, fin whale, and dolphin material as well as Minke whale. The assumption being made in plans to reintroduce commercial whaling is that only abundant species will be exploited and that rare species will be protected. But these new results show that legal whaling could easily serve as a cover for marketing the meat from illegally captured endangered species. A proposal has been made by Norway to establish a control system to detect illegal whale products. DNA samples would be taken from each animal, a set of sequence characteristics determined and entered into a public database. Samples from whale meat found in the marketplace could be analyzed and this would provide information about its origin. Not only species and stock, but even the individual whale can be identified this way. 

Norway's Minke Whale Hunt

Norway is continuing commercial whaling in defiance of the moratorium, taking about 600 Minke whales per year out of the North-East Atlantic population that has been estimated by the Scientific Committee of the IWC (May 1996) at 112,000. There are an estimated 750,000 Minkes in the Antarctic, so the species as a whole is in good shape; but the North Atlantic population is genetically distinct from the Antarctic one (by DNA tests).

When Norway announced its decision to resume commercial whaling at the 1992 IWC meeting, 17 nations signed a statement condemning it. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has deliberately sunk two of the Norwegian ships that were participating in the Minke hunt. The IWC has repeatedly called on Norway to halt its whaling activities, but Norway continues to set itself a quota (549 animals for the year 2001). In the 1997 season Norwegian whalers in 31 vessels killed 503 Minke whales of their 580-whale quota.  This produced an estimated 730 tons of meat valued at about $2.9 million.  Norway hunts Minke whales only for their meat, but in Jan. 2000 they announced that they will start exporting other whale products (mainly blubber) to Japan.

In 1999, Iceland also made plans to resume commercial whaling.

The Minke whale issue illustrates a fundamental difference in approaches to conservation: Japan, Norway and Iceland want to resume commercial whaling under the rules of the Revised Management Scheme, which was established to allow scientific information on population sizes to guide the assignment of whaling quotas.  But the IWC has repeatedly refused to approve resumption of commercial whaling, even under the Revised Management Scheme.  This is because the delegations from several powerful non-whaling nations, following public opinion in their own countries, are opposed to commercial whaling even if it does not threaten the targeted species. 

International Whaling Commission, 2002 meeting | High North Alliance @ the 54th annual IWC meeting 2002

Recommended book: Greenlanders, Whales, and Whaling: Sustainability and Self-Determination in the Arctic by Richard A. Caulfield. 1997, Dartmouth College; 224 pages. 

Laws Protecting Marine Mammals

Whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea lions receive protection in the U.S. under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.  In passing this legislation, Congress found that (quote):

	certain species and population stocks of marine mammals are, or may be, in danger of extinction or depletion as a  result of man's activities;
	such species and population stocks should not be permitted to diminish beyond the point at which they cease to be a significant functioning element in the ecosystem of which they are a part, and, consistent with this major objective,  they should not be permitted to diminish below their optimum sustainable population level;
	measures should be taken immediately to replenish any species or population stock which has diminished below its optimum sustainable level;
	there is inadequate knowledge of the ecology and population dynamics of such marine mammals and of the factors  which bear upon their ability to reproduce themselves successfully; and
	marine mammals have proven themselves to be resources of great international significance, aesthetic and  recreational as well as economic.

The MMPA established a moratorium, with certain exceptions, on the taking of marine mammals in U.S. waters and by U.S. citizens on the high seas, and on the importing of marine mammals and marine mammal products into the United  States.

MMPA Reauthorization 1999

The eleven species of marine mammals that occur in U.S. waters, including most of the great whales, also receive protection because they are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Read some of the arguments:

Point	Counterpoint
"Save the Whalers": William Aron (former U.S. commissioner of the IWC and a former member of its Scientific Committee) argues that the whaling moratorium is supported by "environmental extremists" and that the IWC should allow whalers and whales to coexist.	Response: David Hofmann (wildlife photographer) argues that the article by William Aron contains misinformation combined with propaganda for whale hunting.
The High North Alliance defends the right of coastal communities to utilize marine mammals sustainably.	Greenpeace, Australia and New Zealand propose a global sanctuary for whales.
Defenders of the rights of the Makah to hunt whales claim that some whale protection advocates are using racist arguments.	StopWhaleKill.org wants to stop the killing of gray whales by the Makah.

Then try to decide what you believe in, and why:

1.  Whale stocks are a renewable resource and should be commercially exploited like any other renewable resource

2.  Whale stocks are an exploitable resource but should not be exploited now because their population levels are too low

3.  Whale stocks as a renewable resource but should be exploited only for subsistence purposes

a.  Only traditional techniques should be used
b.  Only humane killing techniques, even if this involves non-traditional technology, should be used
c.  Only groups that have a long tradition of whaling should be allowed to harvest whales
d.  Only groups that depend exclusively on marine resources should be allowed to harvest whales

4.  Whales are special animals that deserve full protection.

a. They are mammals
b. They are intelligent, sentient beings
c. They are spectacular, interesting products of millions of years of evolution

5.  Whales should be protected because we should not exploit any wild animal populations.

AND: How should whaling policies be developed and enforced?

1. By individual nations
2. By international agreements

Additional Links on Whales and Whaling

Tethys Research Institute Home Page

Saving Whales With DNA

Office of Protected Resources Cetaceans Home Page

Whale Conservation Institute

Whale-Watching Web

Whale and Dolphin Adoption Project Home Page

Whale Research Lab, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
Whales-online

Dolphins

River dolphins

WhaleTimes:Fishin' for Facts-River Dolphins

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Copyright ©2002  Peter J. Bryant (pjbryant@uci.edu), School of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. Phone (949) 824-4714 Fax (949) 824-3571 A Project of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Global Sustainability