Whales face more threats today than at any other time in history—from hunting, ship strikes, fishing gear entanglements and global warming. Yet Japan, Iceland and Norway continue to thwart a worldwide prohibition on commercial whaling, using self-granted permits to conduct lethal scientific research and by exempting themselves from the ban. More than 30,000 whales have been killed and their meat sold commercially since the International Whaling Commission prohibited commercial whaling in 1986.
The Pew Global Whale Conservation Project aims to
Reverse the momentum that pro-whaling nations gained in weakening the international moratorium on commercial whaling;
Develop the voices of civil society by creating a network of nongovernmental organizations supporting whale conservation in the Pacific. West Africa and the Caribbean.;
Ensure a voting majority of countries in the IWC that oppose commercial and scientific whaling;
End Japanese scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary;
Achieve lasting reform of the IWC so that it will provide greater protection for whales.