The IWC protects blue whales from commercial hunting
Blue whales are protected from hunting under the IWC from 1966, after the Antarctic population has already been reduced to a small fraction of its former size. One retrieved summary refers to an earlier zero-catch measure in 1964 whose geographic scope could not be confirmed in this session. Protection arrives after the commercial incentive has largely collapsed, which is a recurring pattern rather than a coincidence.
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.
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
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