Whaling (Primary)

• Geography
• English
• +3
• 4-6 Grade
• 6th,7th Grade

Introductie

Overfishing is emptying the ocean, with 90% of fisheries already overfished. Illegal fishing is having a big impact. This lesson explains the role commercial whaling has played and the current status of whaling.

WHALING

Whaling 1900's and current whaling nations.

Whales have lived on planet earth for 50 million years.

How whales fuel the carbon cycle?

Threats to whales - plastic pollution,by-catch, entanglement and ship strikes.

Nearly 3 million whales hunted in 1900's.

Blue whales - 1% of pre-whaling population left.

Whale species are still endangered.

Why do you think it
takes so long for whale
numbers to recover?

IWC

International Whaling Commission established 1946.

Members are nations who conducted whale hunts.

Up to 1986 determined quotas for whaling.

IWC voted to ban whaling from 1985/86.

IWC

Whaling classifications:

1. Commercial Whaling

Killing of whales for the sale of the meat and by-products for profit.

IWC

Whaling classifications:

2. Indigenous Whaling

To allow communities that have a subsistence living and rely on whale meat to continue to survive.

IWC

Whaling classifications:

3. Special Permit Whaling

Allows for lethal research

Whales are killed to conduct research.

Do you know of any non lethal ways research can be conducted on whales?

CITES

Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species

Member countries must prohibit trade in whale products.

Indigenous whaling nations:

Russia, United States, Greenland and West Indies.

Non IWC member

Whaling nations

Canada  - Inuits take several bowhead whales a year.

Indonesia - up to 40 sperm whales a year.

South Korea - increasing take - around 100 a year.

Research Whaling - Japan

Southern Ocean and North Pacific

Southern Ocean

Whale Sanctuary

Japanese whale within the Sanctuary.

Sanctuary is 50m square kilometres around Antarctica.

Significant feeding grounds for whales.

What does sanctuary mean?
Should whaling be allowed in a sanctuary?

ICJ Ruling

In 2014 International Court of Justice ruled the Japanese research program in Southern Ocean was not valid.

It was commercial whaling.

Japan's response:

Applied for new research permits - denied by IWC.

Decreased quota to 333 Minke whales - returned to Southern Ocean in 2015 & 2016.

2019 - ceased whaling Southern Ocean, still whaling in North Pacific.

Why do you think a country
would continue whaling
an endangered species?

Illegal commercial whaling - Iceland

Target Fin and Minke whales.

Continued commercial whaling - selling whale meat to Japan.

Less 3% of Icelanders eat whale meat, but sell to tourists in restaurants.

No whaling in 2019 & 2020.

Illegal commercial whaling - Norway

Government believed ban could not be imposed on them.

Quota of 1,000 Minke whales a year - not been able to catch full quota.

Declining market for whale meat -  limited opportunities to sell overseas.

Why would Norway have trouble selling whale meat?

Name six countries that
still conduct whale hunts?

What would you do to help stop whaling?

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