The commercial whaling moratorium takes effect
The zero catch limit adopted in 1982 comes into force - for the 1985/86 pelagic season and the 1986 coastal season. For blue whales it changes little in practice, since they had been protected since 1966 and were commercially exhausted long before that; its significance for this Journey is that it closes the era in which the whales' migration route and the fleet's hunting range were the same map. No blue whales, including pygmy blue whales, have been taken commercially since.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- International Whaling Commission · organisation · International · not located
- Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) · species · Global ocean, all major basins · not located
- Antarctic Blue Whale (B. m. intermedia) · species · Southern Ocean and adjacent temperate South Atlantic, Indian and Pacific sectors · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent. This is the standing of the weakest source, not an average.
Population status summaries and blue whale species page
Blue whales have been protected from hunting by the IWC since 1966; the commercial moratorium was adopted in 1982 with effect from the 1985/86 pelagic and 1986 coastal seasons via paragraph 10(e) of the Schedule; Antarctic blue whale abundance remains below one percent of pre-whaling size. V55 verification basis: iwc.int is blocked by this environment's egress proxy and could not be fetched; these statements come from search summaries that attribute them to the IWC and from concurring secondary sources. One summary refers to a 1964 zero-catch measure whose scope could not be confirmed.
International Whaling Commission · accessed 2026-08-08 · Partly verified
https://iwc.int/about-whales/intro-to-population-status/status-of-whales-text-summaries and https://iwc.int/about-whales/whale-species/blue-whale
Emptying the Oceans: A Summary of Industrial Whaling Catches in the 20th Century
Nearly 2.9 million large whales were killed and processed worldwide between 1900 and 1999, and no blue whales, including pygmy blue whales, have been taken since the moratorium took effect. V55 verification basis: the 2.9 million total and the post-moratorium statement were retrieved in search summary; the species-level blue whale total in this paper was NOT captured and is not cited here.
Marine Fisheries Review (NOAA NMFS Scientific Publications Office); Rocha, Clapham and Ivashchenko · 2014 · Partly verified
Marine Fisheries Review 76(4), 37-48; https://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/content/emptying-oceans-summary-industrial-whaling-catches-20th-century
Recorded on International Whaling Commission
- Whaling begins at Grytviken, South Georgia
- The longest blue whale on record is measured at South Georgia
- The Antarctic blue whale catch reaches its all-time peak
- The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling is signed
- The heaviest blue whale on record is weighed
- Soviet fleets take protected whales and file false returns
- Whaling ends at South Georgia
- The IWC protects blue whales from commercial hunting
- The IWC adopts the commercial whaling moratorium
- The commercial whaling moratorium takes effect
- The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is adopted
- The true scale of Soviet whaling is published
- The energetics of blue whale lunge feeding are modelled
- Dedicated Antarctic Blue Whale Project voyages
- Blue whales are found back at South Georgia
- Baleen whale consumption is re-measured, and the krill paradox sharpens
- The only published Antarctic blue whale satellite tracks are released as data
- A capture-recapture abundance estimate for Antarctic blue whales is published
- An individual Antarctic blue whale is re-sighted at South Georgia
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- An individual Antarctic blue whale is re-sighted at South Georgia · 2026
- A capture-recapture abundance estimate for Antarctic blue whales is published · 2025
- The only published Antarctic blue whale satellite tracks are released as data · 2023
- Baleen whale consumption is re-measured, and the krill paradox sharpens · 2021-11
- Blue whales are found back at South Georgia · 2020-02
- Dedicated Antarctic Blue Whale Project voyages · 2013, 2015, 2019
- The energetics of blue whale lunge feeding are modelled · 2011
- The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is adopted · 1994