Anti-whaling activism has a short history compared to other forms of activism and
environmental awareness. Early members of environmental organizations began protesting whale hunts around the world in the 20th century. These actions were in direct response to the global depletion of whale populations due to over-exploitation by the
whaling industry and the failure of international whaling regulations.
Whaling regulation , Washington, D.C., Dec 2, 1946 The
League of Nations raised concerns about the
over-exploitation of whale stocks and called for conservation measures in 1925. This eventually led to the Geneva Convention for the Regulation of Whaling which was presented in 1931 but did not enter into force until 1934 and was completely ignored by Germany and Japan. In 1937 the International Conference on Whaling added limits on
pelagic whaling in order to prevent excessive exploitation (and specifically the extinction of the
blue whale), thereby creating the International Agreement for the Regulation of Whaling. The
International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was created in 1946 in Washington to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry". Based on the previous 1937 Agreement and subsequent protocols to that agreement in 1938 and 1945, the ICRW led to the 1949 creation of the
International Whaling Commission along with guidelines for the international regulation of coastal and pelagic whaling. Critics charge that the IWC and ICRW have largely failed due to a lack of enforceable rules and regulatory loopholes. In 1966 the
Convention on Fishing and Conservation of Living Resources of the High Seas took the first steps in
marine conservation worldwide. This international treaty was designed to specifically counter the over-exploitation of
sealife including whales. In 1972, the
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment produced a 52–0 vote in favor of a 10-year global moratorium on commercial whaling. However, the UN resolution was not adopted by the IWC. Iceland, Japan, Norway, Panama, Russia and South Africa voted no. In 1973, a moratorium was once again proposed and voted down in the IWC lacking the required 3/4 majority. Iceland, Japan, Norway, Russia and South Africa voted no. That same year the United States also enacted the
Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act which established the
National Marine Sanctuaries program. The United States would later play a significant role in the acceptance of a global moratorium on commercial whaling due to its domestic laws. In particular the 1971 Pelly Amendment to the US Fishermen's Protection Act gives the
US President legal authority to prohibit importation of fish products from any nation that is diminishing the effectiveness of fisheries conservation programs. It was later strengthened by the 1979 Packwood-Magnuson Amendment to the Fishery Conservation and Management Act giving additional sanctioning power with regard to the ICRW.
Save the Whales Popular culture grew to widely accept whales and
dolphins as interesting, entertaining and intelligent over the latter half of the 20th century. From the original tourist attractions at
Marineland to giant
SeaWorld theme parks, captive dolphins and
orcas (killer whales) became star attractions. The 1960s television series
Flipper starred a
Lassie-like dolphin character who befriends a young boy and performs feats of intelligence often saving the day. The 1967 novel
The Day of the Dolphin, which inspired the
1973 film, featured dolphins trained to speak English that help to save the world from nuclear destruction. In 1970 the biologist and environmentalist
Roger Payne recorded and produced the popular
Songs of the Humpback Whale album, after his 1967 discovery (with Scott McVay) of
whale song among
Humpback whales. With the growing popularity of entertaining cetaceans came information and even warnings about the threats to these adored animals. In 1966, Scott McVay first revealed the plight of whales to the public in his article "The Last of the Great Whales", for
Scientific American and two years later "Can Leviathan Long Endure So Wide a Chase?" in
Natural History.
Joan McIntyre (who later went on to found
Project Jonah in 1972) both celebrated the whale and condemned the whaler in the 1974 publication
Mind in the Waters. In 1975,
Audubon dedicated an entire issue to whales titled "Vanishing Giants". From 1968 to 1976
The UnderSeaWorld of Jacques Cousteau included film of whales, dolphins and other marine mammals as subjects of educational television. In 1977,
National Geographic aired "The Great Whales" with scenes of whales being killed. On June 27, 1975, members of Canadian Greenpeace took the first ever direct action against whalers who were actively whaling near the Mendocino Ridge about 40 miles west of California. The Greenpeace activists navigated small inflatable
Zodiac boats between the Russian whalers of the
Dalniy Vostok fleet and the hunted whales. The tactic was intended to prevent the whaling ship gunner from firing the harpoon cannon due to the risk of accidentally striking and harming one of the activists. However, the Russian catcher ship
Vlastny fired directly over the heads of Robert Hunter and activist Paul Watson. The event was filmed by Greenpeace and later broadcast in the United States by the
CBS Evening News with
Walter Cronkite and other major television networks. The activists were unable to stop the Russian whalers but the airing of this event on television was significant in raising public awareness by making the
Save the Whales movement front-page news for the first time. In mid-July 1976, the Canadian Greenpeace deployed a newly acquired ship, an ex-minesweeper called the
James Bay, to confront the
Dalniy Vostok factory ship and its catcher fleet once again. The activists found the Russian whalers midway between California and Hawaii. However, this time the whalers did not fire their harpoon cannons. Instead, the Russian fleet retreated and Greenpeace chased the whalers for two days and nights before being forced to return to Hawaii for refueling. After replenishing their fuel and supplies, the activists found and disrupted the Russian fleet again and chased the whalers northward as far as their fuel permitted. At the end of July 1977, the
James Bay once again found Russian whalers in the Pacific. This time the factory ship
Vladivostok, sister ship of the
Vostok, and its catcher fleet was confronted about 700 miles off the coast of California. The activists filmed whalers at work and documented the Russians taking undersized whales. The human barrier tactic was used again but the whalers fired over the activists. Fortom-Gouin financed the operation and dubbed his group, which included Greenpeace's Robert Hunter, the Whale and Dolphin Coalition (Fortom-Gouin had also largely financed the Greenpeace-Hawaii action against Russian whalers). He had previously worked with the Australian Project Jonah while serving as Panama's official representative to the IWC meeting in Canberra just two months prior. One pirate whaler in particular came to represent the worst of the unregulated whaling industry. Carter's evidence exposed the MV
Sierra as a diesel powered hybrid catcher-factory ship hunting throughout the Atlantic in violation of many national laws, and completely without regard for international whaling regulations. The name of the vessel (
Robert W. Vinke, MV
Run, MV
Sierra) and its ownership (companies from the Netherlands to Norway, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas, South Africa and Panama) had changed several times as well as her home port (various European and African ports) and flags of convenience (Dutch, Bahamian, Sierra Leonean, Somalian, Cypriot).
Sierra was whaling illegally in areas forbidden by the IWC, prosecuted in the Bahamas and South Africa, forbidden entry to British controlled ports, and more. She harpooned critically endangered species, undersized whales, mothers and nursing calves, regardless of season, without license and without reporting her actions. To maximize profits,
Sierra motley international crew (which even staged a mutiny that left one Norwegian captain wounded and marooned in Angola) used cold harpoons without expensive explosive tips, which prolonged the suffering of the animal, and often kept only the prime-cuts of
meat while dumping most of the whale carcass. The design of the ship itself, a catcher-factory hybrid complete with freezers to preserve the meat, enabled
Sierra to operate in a cost-effective manner without a large fleet that would draw attention. However, in the 1970s pirate whaling continued despite the public exposure and
Sierra would not be stopped until a fateful confrontation with another anti-whaling activist named Paul Watson.
Direct action: Iceland Allen Thornton, a Canadian activist, traveled to England in 1976 to establish a European Greenpeace presence. His fund raising efforts drew generous donations from comedian
Spike Milligan and
the Beatles. In 1977, he helped establish Greenpeace-UK. The new office was followed by additional Greenpeace offices in France, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. Greenpeace activist, David McTaggart, assumed overall leadership of Greenpeace International. With the contributions in Europe and a grant from the World Wildlife Fund, the Greenpeace ship,
Rainbow Warrior, was deployed in 1978 to confront Iceland's whalers in the North Atlantic. In the 1978 campaign, the
Rainbow Warrior spent a month interfering with whaling operations in Icelandic waters without incident. In the
1986 Hvalur sinkings, activists from the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society sank two unoccupied whaling vessels,
Hvalur 6 and
Hvalur 7, and sabotaged a whale processing station in
Hvalfjörður.
Direct action: pirate whaling After splitting from Greenpeace, activist Paul Watson, with funding and support from
Cleveland Amory (founder of The Fund for Animals), acquired a 779-ton deep-water trawler and renamed the ship, the
Sea Shepherd. The bow of the ship was reinforced with many tons of concrete and set out for the North Atlantic to confront the infamous pirate whaler,
Sierra. Craig Van Note, of the Monitor Consortium (a group of conservation organizations based in Washington), provided Watson with vital information on the location of the
Sierra from a global network of sources. used magnetic limpet mines to blow a hole in her side and sank the pirate whaler in Lisbon harbor, permanently ending her career.
Prosecution: South Africa In April 1979,
Colin Eglin, leader of the South African opposition, urged the government to investigate pirate whaling while Andrew Behr (owner of the
Sierra and other pirate whalers) now denied any links to such activities. However, at the same time two Panamanian flagged whaling ships,
Susan and
Theresa (each named for Behr's daughters), were being converted into hybrid factory-catcher ships just like the
Sierra by a South African shipbuilder. A
Cape Times reporter, Stephen Wrottesley, also discovered the Sierra Fishing Company was hiring a new crew in the Cape Town area and another ship, the MV
Fisher (formerly the MV
Yashima Maru), was also being refitted for whaling and was registered in Panama.
Nick Carter, his colleague Nan Rice, and many other conservationists personally urged Colin Eglin to act while international environmental organizations pressured the government for an official inquiry. When port authorities ordered all South African nationals off of the
Fisher, a foreign crew took the ship to the Canary Islands and it was renamed the
Astrid. Soon after, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society distributed wanted posters advertising a $25,000 reward to anyone who would sink it. Andrew Behr relocated himself and his family to England and the
Susan and
Theresa were seized as a result of the inquiry. The legal battle to have the ships released failed and years later the two pirate whalers were used for target practice and destroyed by the South African Navy. In December 1979, two explosions were heard in the port of
Corcubión (Galicia, Spain) but the whaling ships there were not damaged. Then on April 27, 1980, the whalers
Ibsa I and
Ibsa II were sunk in the port of Marin by unknown saboteurs hired by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society with limpet mines in a manner similar to the sinking of the
Sierra. Charged in a military court, the captain of the
Rainbow Warrior, Jonathan Castle, refused to pay the $142,000 fine (1,200,000 pesetas) and the ship was held in the military harbor O Ferrol. Spanish authorities disabled the activist vessel by removing the thrust block from its engine. However, for five months Greenpeace members kept the ship otherwise seaworthy while a secret effort was made to find a new thrust block. A replacement part was found, smuggled into Spain, and walked past the Spanish guards by Greenpeace members laughing and acting as if returning from a bout of drinking. Finally, on November 8 the
Rainbow Warrior escaped under cover of darkness during a changing of the guard. The Spanish Navy was unable (or unwilling) to find and recapture the activists who were given a heroes' welcome in Jersey on November 11 by cheering crowds. Later, on November 15, the ship finally arrived to Amsterdam, her base. However, the environmental victory did not come without cost. Japan responded in 1980 by ending a grant scheme to Seychelles for a fisheries research and training vessel. A letter from the Japanese ambassador explained this grant would not be extended to the tiny island nation due to its position in the International Whaling Commission and stated this decision would be reversed if the attitude of the Seychelles government changed at the IWC. Surprisingly, Maxine Ferrari, the Seychelles Minister of Development and Planning, quickly rejected and condemned Japan's actions. On January 9, 1981, the
Sumi Maru No. 25, a Japanese fishing boat, was seized while fishing in Seychelles waters and fined $115,000. In April, 1982, Japanese Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki offered a $40 million aid package to Seychelles which was ultimately rejected as well.
Invasion: Siberia The Soviets reasoned that the best way to conduct a subsistence hunt was to employ a single modern whaling ship, the
Zevezdny, to catch whales on behalf of the Siberian native people. Instead of the average 10 to 30 whales historically claimed in one year, after 1955 the quota rose to nearly 200 gray whales and international observers were not permitted. On August 9, 1981, Paul Watson led a new crew, aboard the
Sea Shepherd II, from Nome, Alaska into the territorial waters of the Soviet Union. When the activists arrived at the Soviet whaling station village of Loren they quickly discovered that the whaling operation had been dedicated to producing feed for a commercial mink farm, complete with non-aboriginal blonde haired, blue eyed Russian workers. They managed to film and photograph the whaling station. The evidence was later turned over to Congress. The activists were soon running from the Russian military, including helicopter gunships and a destroyer, but managed to escape into American waters. Greenpeace discovered Japan's investment in Chilean whaling included a hybrid catcher-factory ship originally named the
Orient Maru No. 2, then renamed the
Paulmy Star III, and in 1980 it became the
Juan 9. Although it was prohibited to sell whaling equipment to non-members, export documents revealed the whaling ship was falsely listed as a shrimp trawler before Chile joined the IWC. The whalers consistently violated IWC regulations including hunting out of season and killing protected species. In 1984, the propeller shaft of the
Juan 9 broke resulting in financial troubles that led creditors to seize the ship the next year. The investigation continued in Japan's Tsukiji market where Campbell Plowden and Rebecca Clark found whale meat, packed by Marine Enterprises Co. Ltd (a South Korean front company), that had originally come from Taiwan. In 1979, Japan reported the import of 1,800 tons of whale meat from South Korea, but the Koreans had only reported the export of 400 tons. This led Plowden and Clark to the Marine Enterprises processing plant to gather proof of Taiwan provided whale meat repackaged as a product of Korea for shipment to Japan. The Greenpeace activists were threatened with charges of piracy. However, many Peruvians protested on their behalf including Felipe Benavides, who had opposed whaling for nearly 30 years. After several days, the activists were released with a $3,000 fine, and two weeks later, the
Rainbow Warrior was released as well. Despite continued protest and international diplomatic pressure, Peru continued whaling until 1986. On March 31, 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan must stop its whaling in the Antarctic. In 1994, the IWC created the
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in Antarctica to protect whales in their breeding grounds. Two additional sanctuaries were proposed in 1998 by anti-whaling nations, but they failed to get enough votes in the IWC. , docked in Melbourne before setting out to pursue the Japanese whaling fleet in 2005
Modern conflicts Throughout the past decade , while pro- and anti-whaling nations debated and deliberated at the IWC, private activists have organized a range of protests against commercial whaling. Most notably,
Greenpeace and
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society continue separate campaigns of direct action against whale hunts conducted by Norway,
Iceland, and Japan. Both also conduct media campaigns and other public outreach to raise awareness. Each organization criticizes the other for differing activist philosophies and each, in turn, receives criticism from both pro- and anti-whaling countries. "The governments of Australia and New Zealand, which have responsibility for maritime rescue in the area where the whale hunt is usually conducted, have repeatedly urged both sides to tone their responses down." More recently , the Australian government, as an anti-whaling member of the IWC, set a November 2010 deadline to stop Japanese whaling in the
Southern Ocean or face an international legal challenge. However, the IWC's ban on commercial whaling is under debate and could be overturned by the end of 2010. In a compromise aimed at ending a deadlock between anti-whaling nations and whaling countries, such as Norway, Iceland, and Japan, the IWC would permit limited commercial hunting. The IWC proposal drew immediate criticism from environmentalists, who described it as "disaster for whales". == Subsistence hunting ==