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31 Ocean L. Memo 1 (1987)

handle is hein.journals/ocoaslme31 and id is 1 raw text is: Ocean and Coastal Law Center * School of Law * University of Oregon * Eugene 97403 i Ocean Law Xem October 15, 1987 INTERNATIONAL REGULATION OF WHALING: THE U.S. ROLE I. INTRODUCTION The history of whaling dates back thousands of years, but it was techno- logical developments in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that lade very efficient whale hunts possible. Before this great increase in whaling, there were an estimated 3.9 million whales in the world's oceans. By 1975, the number of whales was reduced to approximately 2.1 million, with proportionately greater reductions in the populations of the larger baleen species demanded by the whaling industry. For example, some species in the Antarctic have declined as much as ninety- ix percent during the twentieth century. Originally, whales were considered a valuable resource for oil and baleen (whalebone). Since the 1960's the whale meat has been used for pet food, agri- cultural feed, and in a few countries for human consumption. After World War II, whales became an even greater resource for oil for use as high grade industsial lubricants and industrial waxes. Today, whales are also recog- nized as valuable aesthetic, recreation- al, and scientific resources. The following is a review of the history of international attempts to manage whale populations and a report of a major controversy between the U.S. and Japan concerning an international effort toward whale conservation. Also dis- cussed is an update of recent develop- ments, including the commercial whaling moratorium and its exemptions for ab- original subsistence and scientific whaling. II. INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC LEGAL FRAMEWORK A. The ICRW and the IWC In 1946, fifteen nations formed the International Convention for the Regula- tion of Whaling (ICRW) to establish a system of international regulation for the whale fisheries to ensure proper and effective conservation an development of whale stocks . . . . While some countries joined with a general interest to protect the whale, most became mem- bers to further tpeir commercial inter- ests in whaling. The ICRW now has forty-one member nations, most of which either have discontinued or have never participated in commercial whaling. The eight countries still identified as commercial whaling nations are Japan, 1. S. Frost, The Whaling Question (1979). 2. Scarff, The International Management of Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises: An Interdisciplinary Assessment, 6 Ecology L.Q. 323 (1977). 3. S. Frost, The Whaling Question (1979); G. Smith, The International Whaling Commission: An Analysis of the Past and Reflections on the Future, 16 Nat. Resources Law 543 (1983-84); P. Birnie, International Regulation of Whaling: From Conservation of Whaling to Conservation of Whales and Regulation of Whale Watching, Vol. 1 (1985). 4. International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, Dec. 2, 1946, 62 Stat. 1716, T.I.A.S. No. 1849 (hereinafter Convention), Preamble. 5. G. Smith, The International Whaling Commission: An Analysis of the Past and Reflections on the Future, 16 Nat. Resources Law 543 (1983-84). ISSUE 31

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