Norwegian Fisheries Minister, Per Sandberg, has released a lengthy opinion piece in local media regarding his country’s whaling and the need to support it, exclaiming that “I want to make sure that whaling stays alive!”:  The minister states that 2017 was the worst year for the industry for some time, with fewer vessels participating and…

The European Union, together with 12 other nations, has issued a formal statement condemning Japan’s Antarctic whale hunting programme and rejected the Japanese government’s weak argument that the slaughter is for scientific research. In addition to the EU, the letter was signed by Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, New…

Norway’s minke whaling season opened Saturday with whalers given an increased quota of 999, up from 880 whales last year. The quota (number of whales they can kill) is self-allocated and set by Norway’s own Fisheries Ministry, which claims that it has set the quota numbers in accordance with scientific advice from the international body…

The South Korean coastguard has announced that it will be increasing efforts to crack down on illegal whaling in the Yellow Sea. Police and coast guard officials have been catching more and more poachers involved in the hunts, which are fuelled by high prices paid by local restaurants for the meat. A single minke whale can…

Images taken by conservation group, Sea Shepherd appear to indicate that Japanese whale hunters have been slaughtering whales in an Australian whale sanctuary. The pictures show a dead minke whale on the deck of the whale factory ship, Nisshin Maru, which the vessels crew reportedly tried to cover up when they realised that they were…

Disturbing pictures emerging from China seem to show a whale being chopped up outside a company canteen for either dog food, or as a gift to employees from their boss. The Brydes whale is reported to have been purchased by Risun Solar Energy’s owner for 4,000 yuan (nearly £500) from fishermen in neighbouring, coastal Zhejiang…

A South Korean court has jailed over 30 men for illegally hunting minke whales and selling their catch to local restaurants. The Daegu District Court handed down prison terms ranging from 10 to 18 months to two ships captains, a delivery driver and 30 fishermen, and also issued them with fines of up to 5…

A coalition of conservation and animal protection organizations, including WDC has confirmed today that more than 1,500 tonnes of products from endangered fin whales were shipped from Iceland to Japan in July 2016. The discovery comes as major conservation meeting, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) considers…