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Speaking truth to power – my week giving whales a voice

Speaking truth to power – my week giving whales a voice

Fin whales

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting is where governments come together to make decisions about whaling and whale conservation. Our team was at this year’s convention to speak up for the whales. Well, that was an eventful experience. The conference of the International Whaling Commission (IWC, the body that regulates whale hunts) in Slovenia at the…

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Is this the beginning of the end for whaling off Iceland?

Fin whale

I’m feeling cautiously optimistic after Iceland’s Fisheries Minister Svandís Svavarsdóttir wrote that there is little justification for authorising any further whaling when the current permits expire in 2023. Stating unequivocally that ‘it must be shown that it is economically justifiable to renew fishing rights’, Svandís reminds readers that whaling has damaged Iceland’s reputation and negatively…

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From managing commercial slaughter to saving the whale – the International Whaling Commission at 75

Fin whale

Governments come together under the auspices of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to make decisions that affect whales (and more recently dolphins and porpoises too) … and what happens to whales impacts the ocean and all of us. So as the IWC celebrates its 75th anniversary, let’s explore how this international body began by attempting…

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200th anniversary of the sinking of the whaleship Essex

On 20 November 1820, a sperm whale turned on a whaling ship in the Pacific and sank her. Two hundred years on, in her guest blog, freelance journalist and long-time WDC supporter Stephanie Boxall reflects on what we can learn from the incident that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby-Dick. Two hundred years ago, an…

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The whale who sank a ship and became a legend

On 20th November, 1820, far out in the Pacific Ocean, an enormous male sperm whale turned on a group of American whalers, ramming their ship, the Essex, and sinking it.  News of the event shocked the whaling world, and would later inspire Herman Melville to write his great American novel, Moby Dick. No one can…

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