Commercial whaling — largely banned since 1986 but continuing in Norway, Iceland, and Japan — causes significant individual whale welfare harm through non-instantaneous killing methods.
Whaling welfare harm is significant and well-documented: explosive harpoons designed for rapid killing often fail to kill immediately, leaving whales to die slowly from internal hemorrhage over many minutes. Harpoon miss rates mean some whales swim with embedded harpoons. The cognitive complexity of cetaceans — well-established for large whales — makes prolonged dying more ethically significant than for simpler animals. Non-lethal whale watching generates far greater economic value than whaling, removing the economic rationale.