Norwegian fisheries minister, Harald Nesvik, has donated half a million kroner (around £46k) to support marketing of minke whale meat in Norway in an attempt to increase flagging sales. He exclaims that ‘whale tastes good! It’s excellent meat, it’s healthy and we should just eat more of it’ and that ‘Norwegian whaling is sustainable and…

Japan’s highly controversial whaling season in the Antarctic has begun again with hunting vessels leaving the western Japanese port of Shimonoseki today. Their mission is to slaughter up to 333 minke whales through until March 2019 for research. This will be the fourth such hunt since 2015 and will take place despite their scientific value being…

Japan’s import and sale of sei whales products from its controversial “scientific” whaling programme in the North Pacific has been deemed as illegal by the global body entrusted with protecting endangered species from trade. WDC has been pressing for action on this issue and our team at the annual meeting of the Convention on International Trade in…

According to reports from Iceland, the latest fin whaling season there is officially over with 146 fin whales killed, including at least two  rare blue whale/fin whale hybrids. A dozen pregnant females have also been slaughtered. The minke whaling season ended early, in late July with six minkes killed. The future of the industry in…

Japan’s hopes of overturning the 32-year-old ban on commercial whale hunting by changing current international regulations have been defeated following a vote at the International Whaling Commission (the body that regulates whale hunting) in Brazil today. Japan’s proposal had been seen as one of the most dangerous threats to the ban on whaling and the…

Following yesterday’s vote against the creation of a sanctuary for whales in the South Atlantic, more bad news for whales emerged from the International Whaling Commission  meeting (the body that regulates whaling) in Brazil today with the passing of a proposal to allow some countries to have more control over the number of whales that they kill for…

On the eve of the 67th meeting of the IWC (International Whaling Commission – the global body that regulates whaling), WDC can reveal that a report by Norwegian authorities has confirmed the immense cruelty of the country´s own commercial minke whale hunts. The report, which has been submitted to the IWC and, ironically, is intended…

Japanese Newspaper Mainichi has reported that the whaling fleet has returned, reporting 177 kills in the name of ‘research’. Over the summer months, the fleet has focused on the northwest Pacific, catching 134 sei whales and 43 minke whales as the Japanese Fisheries Agency has reported. Findings from the so-called ‘research’ will be discussed at…