Whaling statistics: 1900-2025

In the 20th century, close to 3 million large cetaceans were killed by industrial whaling. The statistics of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) make it possible to retrace, year by year and species by species, the scale of the slaughter, from the peak of the 1930s to 1960s to the commercial moratorium of 1986 (which came into force in 1987).

Three million cetaceans killed in the 20th century

In the 20th century, close to three million large cetaceans were killed by industrial whaling. The statistics of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) make it possible to retrace, year by year and species by species, the scale of the slaughter. This interactive timeline presents annual catches from 1900 to the present day.

Going further

See the detailed history of whaling and the current IUCN status of the species that survived; many are still struggling to rebuild their populations 40 years after the moratorium.

Three centuries of the whaling industry: figures and techniques

Industrial whaling, from the medieval Basques to the Soviet and Japanese fleets of the 20th century, killed close to 2.9 million large whales in the 20th century (Rocha et al. 2014, Marine Fisheries Review). The technological turning point was the explosive harpoon cannon of Svend Foyn (Norway, 1864), combined with steam propulsion, which made the fast rorquals huntable, previously too swift for open boats.

The blue whale, targeted on a massive scale between 1900 and 1965, collapsed from ~300,000 to less than 1% of that number in the Antarctic. The moratorium of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), voted in 1982 and effective in 1986, stopped commercial whaling, apart from objections (Norway, Iceland) and aboriginal subsistence whaling (Alaska, Chukotka, Saint Vincent, Greenland).