Dolphin + Whale Project

The Problem

Whales and dolphins continue to be killed around the world and need our help. Japan, Iceland, and Norway kill more than 1,000 minke, fin, and other great whale species every year, all for meager sales of whale meat. Thousands of dolphins are still killed every year in Japan for meat, and in Indonesia and Peru for shark bait. Whales and dolphins continue to be captured in Russia, Cuba, and Japan for export to captivity facilities. Despite a ban on captures and export, dolphins around the Solomon Islands still face threats of capture, slaughter and export, as is illustrated in the adjacent video, "Pillaging the Solomons".

Our Action Campaign

We have a long history of working within the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to end commercial whaling. In 1982, we helped pass a moratorium on commercial whaling. We publish a daily newsletter, ECO, at IWC meetings, which is the voice for whales and the environmental community. We work with grassroots groups to educate local fishermen about the need to stop the killing of dolphins and sharks. And we support the growing efforts for watching wild dolphins and whales rather than killing them. We support community efforts to replace dolphin killing with dolphin tourism in places like the Solomon Islands, and fight to block the import and export to captivity of wild dolphins, belugas, and orca whales.

Current Challenges

Commercial whaling, undertaken under the guise of “scientific” whaling, must be stopped. Japan is planning more illegal whaling in Antarctica, in defiance of the legal ruling against the country in the International Court of Justice at the Hague. Iceland and Norway are also defiant. We work to protect cetacean habitat from oil and gas threats as well as the Trump administration's plans to reduce the size of marine protected areas. We successfully worked to block the import of wild belugas captured in Russia for U.S. captivity facilities, and to blow the whistle on live dolphin exports from the cruel “cove” drive hunts to places such as Dubai and China. We continue to monitor the situation in the Solomon Islands to ensure that the current ban on the capture and export of dolphins is upheld.

North Atlantic Right Whale Threatened With Extinction

Tara Van Hoorn, January 2021

Human-produced debris is filling up the ocean at an alarming rate. Necropsies of nearly every marine animal reveal the high risk of this pollution crisis, as marine animals like birds, dolphins, turtles, and whales have all been found dead contaminated with various types of trash. Although this pollution comes from individuals and corporations worldwide, one of the most prominent polluters and threats to marine life is the commercial fishing industry, which adds approximately 10% of the plastic waste dumped into the ocean annually.

The Truth About Whaling

Audrey Lee, October 2018

Whaling is the practice of hunting and killing whales by humans for multiple purposes and has been going on for more than a thousand years. Throughout the centuries, whaling became increasingly intense and widespread, especially with the development of the exploding harpoon and better boat engines to chase down the whales. In the 1960s, due to over-hunting, most large whale populations collapsed.