Why an Introduction to International
Marine Mammal Law?
1
1.1
Introduction
I was born in Germany in 1980—a year when the Voyager probe proved the
existence of the Saturn moon Janus and when the US Olympic hockey team defeated
the Soviets in the semifinals of the Winter Olympics. Of course, many other things
happened, but all I was interested in was eating, drinking and sleeping. I was still a
toddler when in 1982 the International Whaling Commission (IWC) decided to put a
halt on the commercial hunt for whales. This so-called ‘moratorium’ on commercial
whaling is probably one of the most far-reaching decisions the IWC has ever made.
The reason is rather simple: while it is supported by the majority of the members of
the IWC, it is far from ever having been a unanimous decision. Until today, the
moratorium constitutes one of the—if not the—most contentious issues within the
Commission. I have come across many statements in the German- and Englishlanguage media which claim that ‘the world has made whaling illegal’ and therefore
that ‘whales are protected under international law.’ Also in discussions that are
ongoing in social circles—actual or electronic—countries like Japan, which has
always pushed for a resumption of sustainable commercial whaling, is often
portrayed as the outlaw, the free-rider that ignores the world’s wish to end the lethal
and commercial use of whales.
Unfortunately, the world is not that simple. And also the legal world surrounding
marine mammals—to which whales belong—is not that simple. Because when
stating that ‘the world has made whaling illegal’ and that ‘whales are protected’,
this significantly oversimplifies, and arguably neglects, at least three important legal
facts: first, it is not ‘the world’ which has made whaling illegal, but rather the
majority of the member states of the IWC, making the commercial hunt for whales
illegal merely for its member states, counting 89 at the time of writing. In other
words, from the perspective of international law, non-IWC-members, comprising all
other 106 countries of this world, can in principle still hunt whales for commercial
gain, including Japan, whose membership ended on 20 June 2019. Moreover, some
IWC Members are not bound by the moratorium (e.g. Norway) as they exercised
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Sellheim, International Marine Mammal Law,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35268-4_1
1
Marine Mammal Law?
1
1.1
Introduction
I was born in Germany in 1980—a year when the Voyager probe proved the
existence of the Saturn moon Janus and when the US Olympic hockey team defeated
the Soviets in the semifinals of the Winter Olympics. Of course, many other things
happened, but all I was interested in was eating, drinking and sleeping. I was still a
toddler when in 1982 the International Whaling Commission (IWC) decided to put a
halt on the commercial hunt for whales. This so-called ‘moratorium’ on commercial
whaling is probably one of the most far-reaching decisions the IWC has ever made.
The reason is rather simple: while it is supported by the majority of the members of
the IWC, it is far from ever having been a unanimous decision. Until today, the
moratorium constitutes one of the—if not the—most contentious issues within the
Commission. I have come across many statements in the German- and Englishlanguage media which claim that ‘the world has made whaling illegal’ and therefore
that ‘whales are protected under international law.’ Also in discussions that are
ongoing in social circles—actual or electronic—countries like Japan, which has
always pushed for a resumption of sustainable commercial whaling, is often
portrayed as the outlaw, the free-rider that ignores the world’s wish to end the lethal
and commercial use of whales.
Unfortunately, the world is not that simple. And also the legal world surrounding
marine mammals—to which whales belong—is not that simple. Because when
stating that ‘the world has made whaling illegal’ and that ‘whales are protected’,
this significantly oversimplifies, and arguably neglects, at least three important legal
facts: first, it is not ‘the world’ which has made whaling illegal, but rather the
majority of the member states of the IWC, making the commercial hunt for whales
illegal merely for its member states, counting 89 at the time of writing. In other
words, from the perspective of international law, non-IWC-members, comprising all
other 106 countries of this world, can in principle still hunt whales for commercial
gain, including Japan, whose membership ended on 20 June 2019. Moreover, some
IWC Members are not bound by the moratorium (e.g. Norway) as they exercised
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Sellheim, International Marine Mammal Law,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35268-4_1
1