Whaling Moratorium

The whaling moratorium is the International Whaling Commission’s zero catch limit on commercial whaling, adopted at the 1982 annual meeting by a vote of 25 to 7 and in effect from the 1985/86 pelagic and 1986 coastal seasons. Made under paragraph 10(e) of the Schedule to the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, it set commercial catch limits at zero for all stocks. It does not bar aboriginal subsistence whaling, scientific whaling under special permit, or whaling by states that lodged an objection or reservation, such as Norway and Iceland.