Seven West African nations are facing backlash after supporting a proposal to resume commercial whaling – claiming it would help fight food insecurity. The move, unexpected from nations with no whaling tradition, was met with dismay from conservation groups.
Senegal, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, DR Congo, Gambia, Ghana and Guinea-Bissau co-sponsored an effort to end the four-decade-old moratorium on commercial whaling at the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) most recent meeting in Peru.
The resolution was ultimately withdrawn due to lack of support, along with a separate motion to declare whaling a source of global food security.
However, its proponents are working to refine their case ahead of the next IWC meeting in Australia in 2026.
"This proposal was never about food security," said Madison Miketa, a wildlife scientist at Humane Society International. "The nations that put it forward have no history or cultural traditions of eating whale meat."
Experts critical
More than 100 scientists and experts from the region publicly agreed there was neither a tradition nor a need for whaling in west and central Africa.
Critics suggest Japan, known for its pro-whaling stance, may have influenced the African nations' position. Japan left the IWC in 2019 but continues whaling in its waters.
“We are relieved that the proposal by some West and Central African countries to falsely link ‘food security’ in West Africa to commercial whaling has failed,” said Maximin Djondo, of OceanCare.
He added that genuine food security was too important to be used as a political football.
“It is shameful that some African governments are allowing themselves to be used for Japan’s commercial whaling interests,” Djondo said.
Meanwhile Guy Aimé Florent Malanda, a Congolese wildlife official, described his country's support for whaling as "unconscionable" and contradictory to national conservation laws.
Ongoing battle
Established in 1946, the IWC is responsible for the conservation of whales and the management of whaling. It introduced a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.
The withdrawal of the motion to resume whaling is a temporary victory for conservation efforts that comes as climate change also threatens whale populations.
A study found that humpback whale numbers in the North Pacific dropped by 20 percent between 2012 and 2021 because there was less plankton, their main source of food.
In the 20th century, humans killed nearly three million whales, putting some species at risk of dying out.
Today, about 1,200 whales are still killed by hunters each year.
