International Whaling Commission (IWC)

Since the beginning of the 20th century, whaling has been carried out in all areas of the World Ocean inhabited by whales. Because of unregulated and rapacious catches, stocks of whales had become exhausted by the twenties and since that time the problem of organizing rational whaling has become the subject of discussion of many international organizations, including the League of Nations, ICES, etc. These organizations approved measures aimed at providing international legal regulations of whaling. In 1930, upon the decision of ICES, the Bureau of international whaling statistics was founded in Stanfjord (Norway). At that time the League of Nations developed the Convention on the regulation of whaling, which was signed by 26 states on 24 September 1931; it entered into force 18 January 1936.