Illegal Whaling for Humpbacks by the Soviet Union in the Antarctic, 1947-1972

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the Soviet Union's whaling for humpbacks in the Antarctic in the 1950s and 1960s, which violated regulations set by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Recently compiled archival records from the Soviet Union indicate that Soviet whalers took a greater number of humpback whales in the Antarctic from 1949 to 1972 than all other whaling fleets combined. The number of humpback whales the Soviet fleet took from the Antarctic in 1961 and 1962 was several times higher than that which IWC biologists then believed to be sustainable. The USSR submitted false reports to the IWC and stalled the creation and implementation of a system of international observation for years. This article suggests that the history of the IWC, the first environmental organization to be global in scope, points to weaknesses in contemporary environmental treaty regimes. Like the Whaling Convention in the 1950s and 1960s, many environmental treaties today are not well monitored. By the time its international observer scheme began operating in 1972-1973, the damage inflicted on whale populations, including humpbacks, was severe.