Skip to content
All news
  • All news
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Corporates
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
  • Stranding
  • Whale watching
Vaquita. Photo Thomas Jefferson

Scientific Committee gives first ever official species extinction warning

Photo: Thomas Jefferson We have welcomed the urgent call by experts to protect the vaquita...
blue whale

Whale fossil from Peru may have been heavier than blue whale

Scientists examining the bones of a 39 million-year-old ancient whale have concluded that it may...
Humpback whale © Christopher Swann

Humpback whales breach in synchronisation

Humpback whales are renowned for their incredible acrobatic displays, but a family in the USA...
Long-finned pilot whale

Unusual activity witnessed before pilot whale stranding

Just days after a pod of long-finned pilot whales stranded on an island in the...

Japanese whaling ships leave ports to hunt for whales

Two commercial whaling vessels departed on the 10th and 11th of June from the Japanese ports of Shimonoseki and Innoshima to kill up to 187 Bryde’s whales and 25 sei whales.

Japan resumed commercial whaling three years ago after leaving the International Whaling Commission (IWC - the body that regulates whaling) and following widespread international criticism condemning Japanese ‘scientific whaling’ in the Antarctic region. 

Now Japanese whalers have set sail to hunt a total of 171 minke whales, 187 Bryde's whales and 25 sei whales. Japan conducts commercial whaling within its 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Pacific Ocean. The 2019 whaling season saw 150 whales slaughtered and last year, 187 Bryde's, 25 sei and 44 minke whales were killed. 

The whaling ship Yushin Maru No. 3 and the whaling mothership Nisshin Maru will begin the hunts on the 15th of June. Both are expected to return to the port of Shimonoseki in mid November.

This cruel practice continues despite a dramatic decline in whale meat consumption in Japan. Only a small but influential group of politicians and whaling industry stakeholders drive the country’s whaling interests. In 2020, the Japanese government subsidised its struggling whaling industry with over 5 billion Yen (nearly £40m).

flensing_1

Both history and current practice show that whaling can never be sustainable, controllable or humane. Yet few people, let alone governments, are aware that recovering whale populations can help fight the damage we cause.

Will you make a donation to help us keep fighting to stop whaling?

Leave a Comment