ABSTRACT
Whale numbers have crashed from what they once were, and while there is a moratorium on commercial whaling, whales are still harvested for “scientific research”. 1 On the international governing body, the International Whaling Commission, there are clashing values between pro- and anti-whaling countries, which has led to policy-deadlock but at an historically low level of capture. Whether deadlock is a viable whale-management non-system in the long-term is an open question. A replacement that potentially could satisfy at least some whaling and anti-whaling factions is that of trading in a yet-to-be-created instrument, the whale quota unit (WQU). In theory this would move quotas to countries that value them the most highly. Under such a system, anti-whaling countries, or entities such as non-government organizations, could end up owning all WQUs; if so, commercial whaling would end, but with compensation paid to commercial whalers. However, as discussed in this chapter, a lot of questions need to be answered about the practical efficacy of such a trading system.
