this was added elsewhere, right?
Whaling: History of the Zero-Catch Limit Moratorium
In 1986, the International Whale Commission (IWC) decided that catch limits for all whales would be set to zero due to disagreements about catch limits for unprotected species of cetaceans and also to allow time for more scientific research so that it might be possible to have future catch limits other than zero (IWC, 2007a). Of the seventy-eight nations under the IWC's regulations, only three countries have continued with whale hunts: Iceland, Norway, and Japan.
Iceland initially agreed to the moratorium set by the IWC and continued hunting under scientific permit. Three years later, the government ended all scientific endeavors involving lethal whale kills but maintained exports of whale meat to Japan. In 1992, Iceland left the IWC only to return in 2002; however, with the rejoin, Iceland claimed exemption from the zero catch limit set by the IWC (Muller, 2007). After a year, scientific whaling resumes only to turn into full-scale commercial hunting in 2006. In late August of 2007, the government signals an end to commercial whaling due to a lack of consumer demand (IFAW, 2007).
Norway did not put an end to its commercial whaling industry until two years after the IWC implemented the zero catch limit, only to continue its whaling practices under scientific permit. In 1993, commercial hunting resumes under claims that Norway is not bound by the IWC moratorium (Muller, 2007).
Japan complied with the zero catch limit moratorium set by IWC and continued its whaling efforts as scientific research. Each year, an attempt was made to lift the catch limit but was never passed. Several small island nations have been recruited in this effort; however, sufficient numbers have not been rallied to pass such a resolution (Muller, 2007). Disregarding the protests of other nations, Japan expanded its scientific whaling program to include more Minke whales and endangered Fin, Sei, and Humpback species in 2006.
Ocean sanctuaries have been set up to protect whales from prosecution that they are not able to deal with, namely human hunting. The first was set up in the Antarctic Ocean in 1932. The Indian Ocean Sanctuary was set up in 1979. In 1994, the Southern Ocean Sanctuary was adopted by the IWC and will be reviewed every ten years. Proposals for a South Atlantic and South Pacific Sanctuaries have been submitted; the three-quarters majority vote has not been met for either region (IWC, 2007b).
Works Cited
International Fund for Animal Welfare. (2007). Iceland signals an end to its commercial whaling enterprise due to lack of consumer demand. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http:///www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=220372.
International Whaling Commission. (2007). Commission Information. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.iwcoffice.org/commission/iwcmain.htm.
International Whaling Commission. (2007). Whale Sanctuaries. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.iwcoffice.org/conservation/sanctuaries.htm.
Muller, George C. (2007). Timeline of Commercial Whaling. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from http://www.cgeorgemuller.com/timeline.htm.