What threats are facing these cetaceans?

Despite a moratorium in force since 1986, Iceland, Norway, and Japan continue to practice this fishing. While some species are regenerating, cetaceans remain vulnerable.

The Danish courts will rule on Wednesday, September 3, on the extradition to Japan of environmental activist Paul Watson, who suspects him of being jointly responsible for damage to one of his whaling ships in 2010. This case highlights the practice of whaling. A commercial hunt that has been subject to a moratorium since 1986, in order to allow whale populations to recover, but three countries, Iceland, Norway, and Japan, continue to practice this fishing.

These three countries defy the moratorium and kill more than 1,000 whales each year, according to the International Whaling Commission. They put forward arguments of tradition and fishing for food to justify themselves, even though the figures show that whale meat is consumed less and less. The Japanese, for example, consume 100 times less than they did 60 years ago. Furthermore, these countries also cite a sufficient recovery of cetacean populations to justify their fishing.

The 1986 moratorium has, it is true, borne fruit. The number of humpback whales, for example, has increased from 450 in the 1950s to 25,000 today. The number of fin whales has doubled since the 1970s. Populations of gray whales have also increased, but be careful, these three species remain classified as vulnerable or endangered by the IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Just like the blue whale or the Atlantic right whale, which is found “critically endangered”.

For scientists, these cetaceans are far from being out of the woods, and remain all the more vulnerable because their reproduction rate is slow and they are subject to new threats such as collisions with ships, noise pollution which disorients them or global warming. However, whales play an essential role in ecological regulation.

By diving deep, they bring nutrients to the surface, which are precious to fish and crustaceans. They also fertilize the oceans with their nutrient-rich excrement. Their role is essential to also feed phytoplankton, which itself is essential to capture carbon from our atmosphere. All this explains why Paul Watson keeps repeating from his prison in Greenland that he will continue his fight to defend cetaceans.