Baleen whales
Japan vows to continue its whaling program, despite an international ruling ordering it to stop
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the global whale population was hunted to near extinction. A moratorium on commercial whaling, proposed in 1982 and enforced beginning in 1986 aimed to reverse this, and it has been successful: some whale species are beginning to recover, albeit slowly. Japan, however, has continued killing whales, in the name of “research” — and after agreeing to abide by an international ruling ordering it stop, it is now planning to resume whaling in 2015.