The document discusses indigenous whaling and compares it to commercial whaling. It notes that the International Whaling Commission (IWC) allows indigenous groups in certain countries quotas to whale for cultural or religious reasons, with groups in the US and Canada allowed to hunt around 1,000 whales per year. Meanwhile, Japan hunts around 950 whales annually under the guise of "scientific whaling," and other countries conduct smaller commercial hunts. Both indigenous groups and commercial whalers argue over cultural traditions and population management, but whaling has reduced some whale species to fractions of their original sizes. There are reasonable arguments on both sides but no simple conclusions.

1. Indigenous Whaling A Religious Right or Ecological Crime?

2. Whaling Today • International Whaling Convention (IWC) overseas the the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW). This was signed in 1946 in order to track whale populations and address issues of conservation • Not all countries are members of the IWC. Canada left in 1982; countries that leave the IWC are not subject to any sanctions on whaling.

7. Cultural/Religious Whaling Indigenous Whaling is a long standing religious/cultural tradition

8. Indigenous Whaling Today • Aboriginal groups, both in the US and Canada still whale for cultural and/or ceremonial reasons as well as, in some cases, for food.

12. Objections to Indigenous Whaling Just as people object to commercial whaling, people also object to the ceremonial/religious whaling done by Indigenous Peoples.