page_title: International Whaling Commission
section_title: The North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission
hierarchical_section_title: International Whaling Commission / Politics / The North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission
context_page_description: The International Whaling Commission is an international body set up by the terms of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, which was signed in Washington, D.C., United States, on 2 December 1946 to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry".
  In 1982 the IWC adopted a moratorium on commercial whaling. Currently, Japan, Canada, and a number of other nations oppose this moratorium. The IWC allows non-zero whaling quotas for aboriginal subsistence and also member nations may issue 'Scientific Permits' to their citizens. Japan has issued such permits since 1986, Norway and Iceland whale under objection to the moratorium and issue their own quotas. In 1994, the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was created by the IWC.
  The main duty of the IWC is to keep under review and revise as necessary the measures laid down in the Schedule to the Convention which govern the conduct of whaling throughout the world.
context_section_description: The moratorium on commercial whaling led Iceland to withdraw in protest from the IWC, as it had threatened to do if the moratorium was extended. Japan and Norway also threatened to leave the organisation. In April 1992, the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO) was established by the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, and Norway under the Agreement on Cooperation in Research, Conservation and Management of Marine Mammals in the North Atlantic. The document clearly responded to what the drafters regarded as the inappropriate whale protectionist tendencies of the IWC. Guðmundur Eiríksson of Iceland stated at NAMMCO's inaugural meeting that the organisation was established in part out of dissatisfaction with the IWC's zero-catch quota. Although NAMMCO does not conflict directly with the obligations of membership states under the IWC, it nonetheless presented a challenge to the legitimacy of the IWC.
caption: Norwegian minke whale quotas (blue line, 1994–2006) and catches (red line, 1946–2005)
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