The International Whaling Commission (IWC) agreed to foster synergies with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). It also adopted resolutions on cooperation with the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in Antarctica and on international legal obligations in commercial whaling activities.

Describing the context for the 69th meeting of the IWC (IWC-69) that convened from 23-27 September 2024 in Lima, Peru, the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) summary report notes that whales were once widely abundant across the Earth’s oceans. Yet, today, “some whale populations… teeter on the brink of extinction.” While for many years, the primary cause of this decline was commercial whaling, threats from bycatch, entanglement in fishing nets, ship strikes, marine pollution, and climate change “represent the ‘harpoons’ of the present day,” according to the ENB analysis of the meeting.

Commercial whaling began in the early Middle Ages and continued through much of the 20th century. “[A]n estimated 2.9 million whales were harvested, with nearly 70,000 whales taken annually in 1960s,” ENB writes. Responding to declining stocks and public pressure, the IWC adopted a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982, which entered into force in 1986. By the end of IWC-69, the whaling moratorium remained in place.

For some Commissioners, IWC-69 provided an opportunity to meet the new Executive Secretary, Martha Rojas Urrego, who assumed leadership of the IWC Secretariat in 2023. The first round of budget discussions following the approval of a balanced- and zero-based budget approach also took place, with delegates approving a 3% increase in the IWC budget and hearing announcements of voluntary contributions.

The meeting agreed to the renewal of the six-year catch/strike limits for Aboriginal hunters, which one representative credited for increased “trust” between the whaling communities and the IWC. A vote on the proposed whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic “came close, but did not pass.”

Proposed resolutions on food security and on the management and orderly development of the whaling industry were withdrawn so that their proponents could “consult over the intersessional period and bring revised draft resolutions back to IWC-70.”

Among the meeting’s other highlights was the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Permanent Commission for the South Pacific. [ENB Coverage of IWC-69]