+ sanctuaries
    southern ocean sanctuary
    indian ocean sanctuary
    south pacific
    south atlantic
 -  whale watching

© Gutman/Greenpeace

The Southern Ocean Sanctuary encompasses all waters surrounding Antarctica and protects three quarters of the world's whales in their feeding grounds. The sanctuary was created in 1994 by the IWC with a nearly unanimous vote, 23:1. Japan, the only country that voted against the proposal, registered an objection to the decision and has since continued to whale there.

The Southern ocean is vital to whale populations and the world's marine environment. The Antarctic marine ecosystem is biologically rich and diverse. The landmass and surrounding waters provide essential nutrients to the rest of the world's oceans, supporting ecosystems thousands of kilometres away. Microscopic plankton are at the base of the food chain and are, in turn, eaten by vast shoals of small crustaceans, such as krill, and a wide range of fish. Krill are food for penguins and other birds, seals and sea lions, and for many of the great whales.

Depleted populations of Blue, Fin, Sei and Humpback whales make their summer homes in the Southern ocean, as well as the world's only large population of great whales that has not been seriously depleted by whaling, the Antarctic Minke. These whales feed in the productive waters of the Southern ocean, replenishing their reserves of fat before winter breeding begins. Protecting these whales in their feeding grounds is critical to maintaining their populations.

The IWC created the sanctuary to prevent the possibility of any future legal whaling ever taking place in the waters around Antarctica. Japan, however, conducts its largest hunt in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, returning home with 2,000 tonnes of whale meat annually. This activity aims to pressure the international community to abandon the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, and threatens the introduction of new sanctuaries. It undermines the sanctuary's purpose of protecting whales from commercial exploitation, since the meat of the whales killed in Japan's 'scientific' programme is sold on the open market. Japan's goal is to open the Southern Ocean Sanctuary to full-scale commercial whaling.