What will the next fifty years bring for whale populations?

Wildlife & Countryside Link ‘As COP26 concluded this month, another environmental international gathering celebrated a major anniversary – the International Whaling Commission (IWC) turned 75. Established in 1946, the IWC secured global agreement to a commercial whaling moratorium in 1982 which it now works to enforce, with the aim of bringing whale populations back to the pre-industrial whaling levels. Whales play a critical role in keeping marine ecosystems healthy, making the full recovery of whale populations an ecological as well as ethical imperative.

A group of whale and marine conservation organisations, including members of Link’s Marine Mammals Group, came together on 30 November to mark the 75th anniversary, and to advocate for a high-ambition vision for the IWC’s next 50 years, proposing that the Commission drives a significant scaling up of activity to recover whale populations. In the words of the vision document ‘’It is time for the IWC to adopt the vision to be the centre of global, regional and local efforts to ensure the full recovery and health of all cetacean populations, safeguard their welfare and maximise their ecological contributions to healthy oceans.’’