The IWC adopts the commercial whaling moratorium
The Commission amends paragraph 10(e) of the Schedule so that catch limits for commercial whaling from all stocks shall be zero, for the 1986 coastal season and the 1985/86 pelagic season and thereafter. It is adopted as a temporary measure subject to periodic review, and it is still in force more than forty years later.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- International Whaling Commission · organisation · International · 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
- The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling is signed
- Soviet fleets take protected whales and file false returns
- 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
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is adopted · 1994
- The true scale of Soviet whaling is published · 1994
- The commercial whaling moratorium takes effect · 1986 (coastal); 1985/86 pelagic season
- The IWC protects blue whales from commercial hunting · 1966
- Soviet fleets take protected whales and file false returns · 1948-1970s
- The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling is signed · 1946-12-02