Commercial whaling continues despite a global moratorium, with Norway, Iceland, and Japan still hunting whales. The welfare cost is significant and the economic justification increasingly weak.
Commercial whaling causes extreme suffering with no humane killing method available at scale in open-ocean conditions. The explosive harpoon is designed to kill quickly but frequently fails, leaving whales wounded, panicking, and bleeding for minutes to over an hour before death. The scale of suffering per individual is among the highest of any commercial hunting practice. The economic justification for continuing is increasingly weak — whale meat markets have declined dramatically in all three continuing nations. The practice continues for cultural and political reasons rather than genuine economic necessity, making the continued welfare cost particularly difficult to justify.