Whaling

This year, over 1,400 whales will be slaughtered in the world's oceans by commercial and scientific whaling operations. Despite a ban on commercial whaling nearly 20 years ago, Norway, Japan and Iceland continue to kill whales. HWDT is opposed to whaling activities< and supports a Global anti-whaling campaign launched on 9th March 2004.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC)

As whale populations began to decline it became clear that any kind of whaling activity would become unsustainable without regulation. In 1946 the IWC was formed under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), the main objective being to

“make possible rational utilization of whale resources in a sustainable manner by conserving the whale stocks for future generations" and "to make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry".

Originally, the IWC was made up of whaling nations only, but today there are 52 member countries from whaling and non-whaling nations alike.

The IWC categorizes different types of whaling. These are commercial, scientific aboriginal subsistence whaling. In 1986 a ban on all commercial whaling was introduced, however whaling activities still continued under the categories – scientific and subsistence.

For more information on the IWC please click here www.iwcoffice.org

Whaling in Scotland

In the past whaling has taken place in Scottish waters. From 1904 - 1928 a Norwegian-owned operation was based in Loch Tarbet, Harris, in the Outer Hebrides. The whalers caught predominantly caught fin, sei and blue whales. Records indicate the numbers caught were 1538, 378 and 316 animals respectively. The whaling station also had some catches of Northern right whale, sperm whale, Northern bottlenose whale and humpback whales. Although these were in lesser numbers, 94, 77, 1 and 19 whales, respectively. The operation was closed for some years and then briefly re-opened between 1950-1951. All Scottish-based commercial whaling ceased permanently in 1951. The remains of the old whaling station in Loch Tarbet can still be found.

Whaling today

Any whaling activity is now illegal in Scottish waters. However whaling activities from other nations still present a very real threat to those animals who use Scottish waters. Under particular threat is the minke whale. Norwegians currently catch North Atlantic minke whales in waters adjacent to Scotland and Iceland are proposing to resume commercial whaling in the near future. In 2003 Iceland, under the name of ‘scientific’ whaling hunted 38 minke whales. Although we know that Hebridean waters are an important summer feeding ground for the minke whale, we have little information on the movements or migratory patterns of minke whales during winter months. It is possible that they could travel from Scottish waters into current or future whaling grounds for part of the year and therefore be exposed to this threat of whaling.