Which countries still practice whaling, even though it has been banned since 1986?

The Sea Shepherd founder was arrested for sailing in Faroese waters as part of Operation Bloody Fjords in 2023 against the “massacre” of cetaceans in the archipelago.

On one side, the whalers. On the other, the whalers. The arrest on Sunday, July 21, in Greenland of Canadian activist Paul Watson, founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd and the foundation that bears his name, has put the spotlight on a controversial practice: whaling. In the past, the oil from the animal fueled oil lamps, while the meat fed isolated populations in the inhospitable lands of the far north or the starving inhabitants of a Japan destroyed by war.

The launch in May of a brand new Japanese ship dedicated to this hunt, the Kangei Maruraises the question of the resumption of a practice decried by the general public, increasingly sensitive to animal suffering and the protection of marine ecosystems. And increasingly inclined to support Paul Watson, who risks extradition to Japan. But what does international law say on this subject?

A moratorium on commercial whaling in place since 1986

To regulate whaling, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was created in 1946. Faced with populations then decimated by fishing, but also by collisions with ships, the organization, which brings together 88 countries “strives to promote the recovery of depleted whale populations (…)”. From a legal point of view, the IWC relies on the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, which regulates three types of whaling: whaling for commercial purposes, aboriginal whaling practiced by indigenous communities, particularly in Alaska or Siberia, and whaling for scientific purposes. Over the years, the IWC limited the number of species that could be hunted for sale on the shelves, before effectively imposing a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986 by setting a zero quota for the number of whales that could be killed for this purpose.

However, Japan, Norway and Iceland continue to practice commercial whaling. “For the few remaining whaling nations, whaling, while now in need of control and sustainability, remains a legitimate activity on a par with other forms of sustainable exploitation of marine resources,” explained in 2020 the British lawyer Malgosia Fitzmaurice, professor of public law at Queen Mary University of London, in an article discussing the possibility of advancing the regulation of whaling (PDF).

The IWC also recognises the existence of two sanctuaries (one in the Indian Ocean, the other in the Southern Ocean), but failed to have the creation of a sanctuary in the South Atlantic adopted, in the face of opposition from 25 countries, including Japan, Russia, Iceland and Norway.

Japan, against the international community

Before being arrested in Greenland, Paul Watson was heading aboard his foundation’s ship toward the Northwest Passage, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The mission: to intercept the Kangei Maru, a factory ship recently built by Japan in the North Pacific and used by the Kyodo Senpaku company. With its impressive dimensions, this brand new giant of the seas embodies the country’s ambitions in terms of whaling. : 113 meters long, 21 meters wide and weighing 9,200 tons. The country, the main market for whale meat, left the IWC in 2019, with the intention of resuming commercial whaling near its coasts. Since then, “Within its waters, Japan has absolute authority over the management of living species, including whales.“, explained Australian international law professor Donald Rothwell in June, quoted by CNN.

A member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) from its inception, Tokyo has long used the fact that the IWC authorizes the hunting of cetaceans for scientific purposes to circumvent the moratorium. Two years after it came into force, in 1988, Tokyo obtained exemptions under the “research missions” in Antarctica and the northeast Pacific.