Last month the U.S. threatened to impose sanctions against Iceland over its increased whaling activities. In an email interview, Peter Stoett, professor at Concordia University, discussed the politics of the international whaling regime.
WPR: What are the main components of the international whaling regime, and what is its recent trajectory?
Peter Stoett: The International Whaling Commission is the central global body, mandated to protect the whaling industry back in 1946. As the threat of extinction for several species of cetaceans rose and whales assumed a prominent space in public environmental consciousness, the IWC gradually swung towards an anti-whaling position, led by the United States and some key European states. A moratorium on whaling was passed by three-fourths majority vote in 1982, with exceptions for "aboriginal" and "scientific" whaling.