The 2002 International Whaling Commission Meetings

The International Whaling Commission's 54th annual meeting in May 2002 yielded few gains for nations that had hoped to hunt whales commercially. Despite meeting on its home turf—the former whaling center of Shimonoseki—Japan made little progress on its pro-whaling agenda as commissioners blocked the country's request for a coastal whaling quota. In a move that smacked of revenge, Japan and its allies then scuttled a subsistence whaling quota for Russian and Alaskan aboriginal communities. But the tables turned in October, when the commission briefly reconvened and Iceland rejoined the IWC with a reservation to the moratorium on commercial whaling.

To read about the May and October 2002 IWC meetings, click the links below.