British whaling policy in the 1970s

Abstract

The United Kingdom conducted pelagic whaling in the Antarctic Ocean until the mid-1960s and took a moderate position in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) after its establishment in 1946. The UK’s stance changed in 1972, when the government supported a 10-year moratorium on commercial whaling at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment as well as the IWC. The UK has consistently backed moratorium motions since 1972 and is now a leading anti-whaling nation, insisting that no kind of commercial whaling should be permitted. The purpose of this paper is to examine why the UK altered its policy on whaling and whale conservation in the 1970s and to shed light on the decision-making processes that affected government whaling policy in this pivotal period.