We believe the International Whaling Commission can be a great help to whales around the world — by supporting their conservation while simultaneously protecting them from whalers’ harpoons. Whales face more threats today than at any other time in history, and we believe that the IWC’s attention should be directed to these threats.

IFAW believes that the International Whaling Commission should do the following:

• Restructure the IWC agenda so that it reflects the major threats to whales today, including entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, pollution, habitat loss and degradation, and climate change.
• Increase the importance and prominence of the Conservation Committee.
• Expand collaborations with other relevant organizations, and welcome outside experts to attend meetings of working groups and sub-committees.
• No longer permit a minority of pro-whaling countries to dominate the agenda. Only limited time should be allowed for catch-related issues.
• Give at least equal priority in the agenda to non-lethal issues.
• Eliminate the loophole in Article VIII that allows whaling countries to bypass regulations and approve their own “scientific” whaling permits. Require all future scientific whaling permits to be approved by the IWC Scientific Committee. Treat all non-approved whaling activities as commercial whaling, and an infraction against the moratorium.

Read the full list of recommendations by downloading IFAW’s factsheet: Bringing the IWC into the 21st Century (pdf).