TROUBLED WATERS - Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

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A REVIEW OF THE WELFARE IMPLICATIONS OF MODERN WHALING ACTIVITIES
15 Whaling and welfare
Philippa Brakes, Marine Consultant, C/o Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS),
Chippenham, UK
Mark Simmonds, Director of Science, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS),
Chippenham, UK
Philip Lymbery, Director of Communications, World Society for the Protection of Animals
(WSPA), London, UK.
Welfare and the IWC
Animal welfare as a scientific discipline incorporates applied aspects of ethology, bioethics and the
concepts of suffering and well-being. Welfare, including health, has many different aspects and is
defined by both the physical and psychological state of an animal, including how it feels. The welfare
state of an animal can be described as good or high if the individual is fit, healthy and free from
suffering.
Animals may suffer due to disease, injury, fear, or the frustration of basic needs. A ‘need’ is defined as
a requirement fundamental in the biology of the animal, to obtain a particular resource or respond to
a particular environmental or bodily stimulus. If a need is not provided for, then there may be an
effect on physiology or behaviour. One basic need is that an animal should not suffer at the time of
death.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has been considering issues relating to the welfare of
hunted whales since 1957. During the annual meeting of the IWC that year, humane killing of
whales was defined as the process by which the animal is rendered instantaneously insensible until
death supervenes. In 1958, UNCLOS (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)
adopted a resolution requesting that all states use the best means available to capture and kill marine
life, including whales, in order to spare them from suffering to the greatest extent possible
(UNCLOS 1958). The first IWC working party on humane killing was convened in 1959, when
time to death was identified as the main test of humaneness (see chapter 5).
Whaling on the high seas
Despite years of discussion of humane killing issues at the IWC, including the adoption of at least 15
resolutions addressing the welfare of hunted whales, progress has been slow. Today severe welfare
problems remain for cetaceans that are hunted in commercial and Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling
(ASW) activities. In cases where the impetus has existed to bring whaling activities into line with
common expectations and national legislation for the slaughter of other animals for commercial
purposes, reaching these standards has proved problematic. This is demonstrated by Norway’s limited
success in improving the instantaneous death rate (IDR) during its commercial hunt for minke
whales.
Norway contributes more than any other nation to the development of both its own and other