Gates of Dawn

Illegal whaling has become the global preoccupation. Everyday there are hundreds of blue whales that call for help and scream painfully due to being hunted by savage modern technologies. That makes blue whales become a species which is facing imminent extinction. Contributing to save blue whales, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was set up under the International Convention for the regulation of whaling which was signed in Washington DC on 2nd December 1946. The main duty of the IWC is to control review and revise as necessary the measure laid down in the Schedule to the Convention which governs the conduct of whaling throughout the world. These measures, among other things, provide for the complete protection of certain species; designate specified areas as whale sanctuaries; set limits on the numbers and size of whales which may be taken… Since its founding, the IWC has evolved from an organization whose primary purpose was to facilitate commercial whaling into an organization focused more on conservation and protection of whales. In 1986, in response to the realization that the existing regulation scheme was not preserving the whale population, the IWC issued a moratorium on commercial whaling, following what it deemed decades of “over-exploitation which had driven several whale species to the edge of extinction.” Although many countries still continue hunting blue whales illegally and cruelly because of their commercial purpose, the laws of IWC have contributed to restrict to some extent the whaling in over the world.