A Treaty Comes of Age for the Ancient Ones: Implications of the Law of the Sea for the Regulation of Whaling
![handle is hein.journals/intlegp8 and id is 43 raw text is: A Treaty Comes of Age for the Ancient Ones:
Implications of the Law of the Sea for the Regulation
of Whaling
Johanna Matanich
I. Introduction
Whales exist today at the center of an anthropological conflict
between economics and ecology. More importantly, they exist amid
competing international viewpoints on what economics and ecology
mean.' The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling
is the primary international body regulating human interaction with
whales.? In 1946, it was created to protect the whaling industry
from over-harvesting its own livelihood, by protecting whale stocks
for sustainable exploitation.,3 The Convention established the
Interna tional Whaling Commission (IWC) to carry out its mission.
The IWC is the forum at which the ideological struggle over whales
and whaling is played out. Several states opposed to whaling have
joined the IWC, and seek to influence its process in favor of whale
preservation. Today, the IWC operates in a world where public
opinion now predominately favors an end to all commercial whal-
' R. Michael M'Gonigle, The Economizing of Ecology: Why Big, Rare
Whales Still Die, 9 ECOLOGY L.Q. 120, 121 (1980).
2 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, Dec. 2, 1946, art.
11, T.I.A.S. No. 1849, 161 U.N.T.S. 72, [hereinafter International Whaling Conven-
tion].
3 W.F. Perrin, DOLPHINS, PORPOISES, AND WHALES, 1 (1989).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/intlegp8&div=7&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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A Treaty Comes of Age for the Ancient Ones: Implications of the Law of the Sea for the Regulation of Whaling
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