When Greenpeace launched its anti-whaling campaign in 1975, we were responding to the crisis facing the world's great whale populations: most whales had been depleted by a whaling industry that resisted all constraints on its activities and some were on the brink of extinction. Through high-profile direct actions at sea, public outreach and political lobbying, Greenpeace was instrumental in helping secure the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling, which took effect in 1986. At the time, we expected the whaling industry to quietly dissipate. And it nearly did.

Of the nine countries whaling when the moratorium took effect, seven ended their activities by 1990. Yet Japan and Norway continued to whale commercially. Today, these countries are pushing to lift the ban on whaling, an act that will have an enormous impact on the world's remaining whales.