Editing Whaling (section)

== Modernity ==
[[File:Bremerhaven 26 (RaBoe).jpg|thumb|The ''Rau IX'', a whaling ship built in 1939 for the German [[margarine]] company Walter Rau AG,  now part of the collection of the [[German Maritime Museum]]. Whale oil was an important ingredient of margarine and the company operated its own whaling ships<ref>{{Cite web |title=RAU IX |url=https://www.dsm.museum/en/exhibition/exhibits/rau-ix |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=www.dsm.museum |language=en}}</ref>]]

[[File:Whales caught recently.png|thumb|left|Whales caught 2010–2014, by country]]
The primary species hunted are [[minke whale]]s,<ref name="iwc-catch">{{Cite web |url=https://iwc.int/total-catches |title=Total Catches |website=iwc.int |language=en |access-date=2018-04-08}}</ref>
[[Beluga whale#Beluga catches by location|belugas]], [[narwhals]],<ref name="narwhals">{{Cite bioRxiv |last=Witting |first=Lars |date=2017-04-10 |title=Meta population modelling of narwhals in East Canada and West Greenland – 2017 |biorxiv=10.1101/059691}}</ref>
and [[pilot whale]]s, which are some of the smallest species of whales. There are also smaller numbers killed of [[gray whale]]s, [[sei whale]]s, [[fin whale]]s, [[bowhead whale]]s, [[Bryde's whale]]s, [[sperm whale]]s and [[humpback whale]]s.

Recent scientific surveys estimate a population of 103,000 minkes in the northeast Atlantic. With respect to the populations of Antarctic minke whales, as of January 2010, the IWC states that it is "unable to provide reliable estimates at the present time" and that a "major review is underway by the Scientific Committee."<ref>{{cite web|author=Mark Tandy |url=http://iwc.int/estimate |title=Population Estimates |publisher=Iwcoffice.org |access-date=2010-07-10}}</ref>

Whale oil is used little today,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.petroleumhistory.org/OilHistory/pages/Whale/whale.html |title=Whale Oil |publisher=Petroleumhistory.org |access-date=2010-07-10}}</ref> and modern whaling is primarily done for food: for pets, fur farms, sled dogs and humans, and for making carvings of tusks, teeth and vertebrae.<ref name="hoover">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Hoover C, Bailey M, Higdon J, Ferguson SH, Sumalia R |date=March 2013 |title=Estimating the Economic Value of Narwhal and Beluga Hunts in Hudson Bay, Nunavut |journal= Arctic|volume=66 |pages=1–16 |doi=10.14430/arctic4261|s2cid=59126947 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Both meat and blubber ([[muktuk]]) are eaten from narwhals, belugas and bowheads. From commercially hunted minkes, meat is eaten by humans or animals, and blubber is rendered down mostly to cheap industrial products such as animal feed or, in Iceland, as a fuel supplement for whaling ships.

International cooperation on whaling regulation began in 1931 and culminated in the signing of the [[International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling]] (ICRW) in 1946. Its aim is to:

:<blockquote>provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry.<ref>[http://iwc.int/commission/convention.htm The Convention]. Iwcoffice.org. Retrieved on 2011-10-11.</ref></blockquote>

=== International Whaling Commission ===
{{update|section|date=January 2016}}
The [[International Whaling Commission]] (IWC) was set up under the ICRW to decide hunting quotas and other relevant matters based on the findings of its Scientific Committee. Non-member countries are not bound by its regulations and conduct their own management programs. It regulates hunting of 13 species of [[Cetacea#Taxonomy|great whales]] and has not reached consensus on whether it may regulate smaller species.<ref name="iwcjuris">{{Cite web |url=https://iwc.int/smallcetacean |title=Small cetaceans |website=iwc.int |language=en |access-date=2018-04-08}}</ref>

The IWC voted on July 23, 1982, to establish a [[Moratorium (law)|moratorium]] on commercial whaling of great whales beginning in the 1985–86 season. Since 1992, the IWC's Scientific Committee has requested that it be allowed to give quota proposals for some whale stocks, but this has so far been refused by the Plenary Committee.

At the 2010 meeting in Morocco, representatives of the 88 member states discussed whether to lift the 24-year ban on commercial whaling. Japan, Norway and Iceland urged the organisation to lift the ban. A coalition of anti-whaling nations offered a compromise plan that would allow these countries to continue whaling but with smaller catches and under close supervision. Their plan would also completely ban whaling in the [[Southern Ocean]].<ref name="nytimes1">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/world/22whale.html |author=David Jolly |title=Under Pressure, Commission Discusses Lifting Whaling Ban |work = [[The New York Times]] |date=June 21, 2010}}</ref> More than 200 scientists and experts have opposed the compromise proposal for lifting the ban and have also opposed allowing whaling in the Southern Ocean, which was declared a [[Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary|whale sanctuary]] in 1994.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jøn|first=A. Asbjørn|date=2014|title=The whale road: Transitioning from spiritual links, to whaling, to whale watching in Aotearoa New Zealand|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288579743|journal=Australian Folklore: A Yearly Journal of Folklore Studies|issue=29|pages=87–116}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iPUjGuZokfP3tyEKCC8pXzfvgnVg |title=Whaling ban must stay, say 200 scientists |publisher=AFP |date=June 22, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100625062308/https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iPUjGuZokfP3tyEKCC8pXzfvgnVg |archive-date=June 25, 2010 }}</ref> Opponents of the compromise plan want to see an end to all commercial whaling but are willing to allow subsistence-level catches by [[indigenous peoples]].<ref name="nytimes1" />

=== Whaling catches by location ===
These totals include great whales: counts from IWC<ref name="total catch">{{Cite web |url=https://iwc.int/total-catches |title=Total Catches |website=iwc.int |language=en |access-date=2018-11-19}}</ref> and WDC<ref name="wdc">{{Cite web |url=https://us.whales.org/whaling-facts |title=Whaling in Numbers |date=November 2017 |website=WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation |language=en |access-date=2018-11-27 |archive-date=2018-11-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128075241/https://us.whales.org/whaling-facts |url-status=dead }}</ref>
and IWC Summary Catch Database version 6.1, July 2016.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ulqwxv1nz794f4z/AABXkNwPtZ1L1WuLogcv4xWEa?dl= |title=IWCDBv6.1 |date=July 2016 |website=IWC |language=en |access-date=2018-12-22}}</ref>

The IWC database is supplemented by [[Whaling in the Faroe Islands#Catch statistics|Faroese]] catches of pilot whales,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.whaling.fo:80/numberswhalingandani.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612233347/http://www.whaling.fo/numberswhalingandani.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-06-12 |title=Whaling Information |last=Zoological Department, Museum of Natural History |date=2008-06-12 |website=Faroe islands Department of Foreign Affairs |access-date=2018-12-22 }}</ref>
Greenland's and Canada's catches of narwhals (data 1954–2014),<ref name="narwhals" /> belugas from multiple sources shown in the [[Beluga whale]] article, Indonesia's catches of sperm whales,<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/in-for-the-kill-last-of-the-ancient-whalers-20080308-gds4b1.html |title=In for the kill, last of the ancient whalers |last=Broadhead |first=Ivan |date=2008-03-08 |access-date=2018-12-22 |language=en |journal=The Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://spiceislandsblog.com/2015/10/23/the-whale-hunters-of-lamalera/ |title=The Whale Hunters of Lamalera |last=Burnet |first=Ian |date=2015-10-23 |website=spiceislandsblog |language=en |access-date=2018-12-22}}</ref> and bycatch in Korea.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://iwc.int/scprogress|title=Progress Reports|website=iwc.int}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://portal.iwc.int/login|title=International Whaling Commission: Portal|website=portal.iwc.int}}</ref>

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 75%; text-align: center; width: auto;"
|+Whales caught, by country and species, 2010–2014
|-
!Country||Practice||Total||Minke||Belugas||Narwhals||Pilot Whales||Gray||Sei||Fin||Bowhead||Bryde's||Sperm||Humpback||Orca
|-
!Total||||21,008||5,663||4,831||4,548||3,699||642||486||460||323||189||108||57||2
|-
|Canada||Aboriginal||4,510||||1,626||2,870||||||||||15||||||||
|-
|Greenland||Aboriginal||3,953||875||1,316||1,679||||||||37||4||||||42||
|-
|Faroe Islands||Aboriginal||3,698||||||||3,698||||||||||||||||
|-
|Norway||Commercial||2,795||2,795||||||||||||||||||||||
|-
|Japan||Commercial||2,080||1,396||||||||||486||3||||187||8||||
|-
|USA||Aboriginal||1,887||||1,586||||||||||||301||||||||
|-
|Russia||Aboriginal||948||||303||||||642||||||3||||||||
|-
|Iceland||Commercial||648||229||||||||||||419||||||||||
|-
|South Korea||Commercial||376||368||||||1||||||1||||2||||2||2
|-
|Indonesia||Aboriginal||100||||||||||||||||||||100||||
|-
|St. Vincent + Grenadines||Aboriginal||13||||||||||||||||||||||13||
|-
|}

Most of the whale species in the table are not considered endangered by the IUCN ("least concern" or "data deficient"). Only the [[sei whale]] is classified as "endangered", and the [[fin whale]] is classified as "vulnerable" by the IUCN.