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During the 20th century, 2.9 million whales were killed by the commercial whaling industry – likely the single largest removal of any animal in terms of total biomass in human history..

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Population after population was devastated, with sperm whales reduced to less than a third of their pre-whaling population size and blue whales by up to 90 per cent.

As global pressure to end the slaughter mounted, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) agreed a moratorium on commercial whaling from 1986 – a ban which undoubtedly saved many whale species from extinction.

Despite the vast majority of the world firmly consigning commercial whaling to the history books, nearly 40,000 whales have been killed since the ban came into effect. Japan, Norway and Iceland continue commercial hunts, selling and trading whale meat and other products. Iceland and Norway have lodged reservations to the moratorium, while Japan conducts commercial hunting under the guise of ‘scientific research’, despite a 2014 ruling by the International Court of Justice that its long-standing Antarctic programme was ‘not for purposes of scientific research’.