-  japan
 -  norway
 -  IWC
 -  trade
 -  subsistence whaling

The IWC recognises subsistence whaling, the catching of whales by indigenous people for local consumption, as qualitatively different from commercial whaling and does not prohibit it. The IWC calls this "aboriginal subsistence whaling".

Greenpeace does not oppose (but nor do we support) aboriginal subsistence whaling.

Greenpeace firmly believes that commercial whaling was the primary factor that drove many populations of great whales to near extinction prior to the onset of the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on commercial whaling. Consistent with that belief, Greenpeace actively opposes commercial whaling under whatever name, worldwide. Norway's defiant commercial whaling and Japan's so-called 'scientific' whaling are currently the primary focus of Greenpeace's active opposition.