Indigenous whaling after Japan’s withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission

Indigenous whaling is one of the whaling activities under the regulatory power of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Prior to Japanese IWC withdrawal, indigenous whaling played a rather limited role within the general context of whaling. The main focus of the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) was on Japanese scientific whaling, which resulted in the case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2014. Commercial whaling – subject to the moratorium – is at the moment only conducted by Norway. In Iceland no whale hunting took place in 2019, 2020, and 2021 (mainly because it is not economically viable). Hvalur hf. (a private whaling licensed company) however hunted in 2022, and again in 2023. The current, very robust debate in Iceland indicates that it is possible that a new license will not be issued to Hvalur hf. when the current one expires in 2023. In the IWC, Japan made several attempts to reverse the moratorium. Japan has at several times also claimed the acknowledgement of small coastal whaling by the IWC in the same category as indigenous whaling. Furthermore, the recent trend in indigenous whaling is to increase the quotas assigned by the IWC. After the moratorium on commercial whaling staying in place and scientific whaling losing its significance, this chapter demonstrates that indigenous whaling will assume the leading role in types of whaling regulated by the IWC post-Japanese withdrawal. Furthermore, it shows that the raising quotas for indigenous whaling, the ambiguous definition of indigenous whaling, and the inefficient and cruel aboriginal killing methods compared to modern killing methods are already subject to debate and controversy.