Leigh Henry is senior policy adviser for species conservation and advocacy at World Wildlife Fund (WWF). She contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Two years ago, I visited Laguna San Ignacio in Baja California, Mexico — a magical place that is home to the gray whale, one of Earth's largest mammals. Most of my time on the water during that excursion was spent with a gray whale mother and her calf. They approached the boat several times, granting me one of the most amazing wildlife encounters of my life.
Meanwhile, far away in the waters of the northern Atlantic, whales are not receiving such a welcome reception. Commercial whaling vessels are hunting endangered fin whales for their meat at an alarming rate — despite a global ban by the International Whaling Commission. Hvalur, the Icelandic commercial whaling company, recently resumed its commercial hunt of endangered fin whales after a two-year hiatus. Between June 1 and Aug. 19 of this year, 100 fin whales have been slaughtered. Hvalur has exported thousands of tons of whale meat annually to Japan, and John Vidal, reporting for the Guardian, found that Hvalur killed 148 endangered fin whales to feed that trade in 2010 alone.
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