{"id":1269751,"name":"Number of Humpback Whales caught annually","unit":"whales","createdAt":"2026-06-07T17:27:28.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-06-07T17:27:28.000Z","coverage":"","timespan":"1900-2024","datasetId":7977,"columnOrder":0,"shortName":"humpback","catalogPath":"grapher/biodiversity/2026-05-29/long_run_whaling/long_run_whaling_annual#humpback","descriptionShort":"Number of Humpback Whales caught annually","descriptionFromProducer":"- The year is the \"defined catch year,\" usually the year in which all catches were taken. For Antarctic operations it is defined as the start of the season (e.g. for the 1985/86 Antarctic Season the year is 1985).\n- The country is the country of the operating company.\n- All numbers include lost whales (whales that were injured or killed but then lost at sea).","descriptionProcessing":"- Data after 1985 comes from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) which recorded the number of catches at: https://iwc.int/management-and-conservation/whaling/total-catches\n- Data pre-1985 comes from: Rocha, R. C., Clapham, P. J., & Ivashchenko, Y. V. (2014). Emptying the oceans: a summary of industrial whaling catches in the 20th century. Marine Fisheries Review, 76(4), 37-48.\n- For continuity with the Rocha data, we combine common minke and Antarctic minke into a single 'minke' category, and blue and pygmy blue whales into a single 'blue' category. We also add bowhead whales to the \"other/unspecified\" category in the Rocha data, as they are included in the IWC data but not in Rocha's.","type":"int","datasetName":"Long run whaling data (Rocha + IWC)","updatePeriodDays":365,"datasetVersion":"2026-05-29","nonRedistributable":false,"display":{"unit":"whales","color":"#954E28"},"schemaVersion":2,"processingLevel":"minor","presentation":{"titlePublic":"Humpback whales","topicTagsLinks":["Biodiversity","Fish & Overfishing"]},"descriptionKey":["This data comes from two sources: The paper \"Emptying the oceans: a summary of industrial whaling catches in the 20th century\" by Rocha et al. for data pre-1985, and the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for data after 1985.","Data pre-1985 does not include aboriginal subsistence whaling as it focusses on industrial whaling. Data after 1985 from the IWC includes subsistence whaling.","Data before 1985 does not include illegal catches by the Soviet Union, as they are not available as a yearly breakdown. They are included in our [catches by decade](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/whales-killed-per-decade)."],"dimensions":{"years":{"values":[{"id":1900},{"id":1901},{"id":1902},{"id":1903},{"id":1904},{"id":1905},{"id":1906},{"id":1907},{"id":1908},{"id":1909},{"id":1910},{"id":1911},{"id":1912},{"id":1913},{"id":1914},{"id":1915},{"id":1916},{"id":1917},{"id":1918},{"id":1919},{"id":1920},{"id":1921},{"id":1922},{"id":1923},{"id":1924},{"id":1925},{"id":1926},{"id":1927},{"id":1928},{"id":1929},{"id":1930},{"id":1931},{"id":1932},{"id":1933},{"id":1934},{"id":1935},{"id":1936},{"id":1937},{"id":1938},{"id":1939},{"id":1940},{"id":1941},{"id":1942},{"id":1943},{"id":1944},{"id":1945},{"id":1946},{"id":1947},{"id":1948},{"id":1949},{"id":1950},{"id":1951},{"id":1952},{"id":1953},{"id":1954},{"id":1955},{"id":1956},{"id":1957},{"id":1958},{"id":1959},{"id":1960},{"id":1961},{"id":1962},{"id":1963},{"id":1964},{"id":1965},{"id":1966},{"id":1967},{"id":1968},{"id":1969},{"id":1970},{"id":1971},{"id":1972},{"id":1973},{"id":1974},{"id":1975},{"id":1976},{"id":1977},{"id":1978},{"id":1979},{"id":1980},{"id":1981},{"id":1982},{"id":1983},{"id":1984},{"id":1985},{"id":1986},{"id":1987},{"id":1988},{"id":1989},{"id":1990},{"id":1991},{"id":1992},{"id":1993},{"id":1994},{"id":1995},{"id":1996},{"id":1997},{"id":1998},{"id":1999},{"id":2000},{"id":2001},{"id":2002},{"id":2003},{"id":2004},{"id":2005},{"id":2006},{"id":2007},{"id":2008},{"id":2009},{"id":2010},{"id":2011},{"id":2012},{"id":2013},{"id":2014},{"id":2015},{"id":2016},{"id":2017},{"id":2018},{"id":2019},{"id":2020},{"id":2021},{"id":2022},{"id":2023},{"id":2024}]},"entities":{"values":[{"id":355,"name":"World","code":"OWID_WRL"},{"id":14,"name":"Japan","code":"JPN"},{"id":270,"name":"USSR","code":"OWID_USS"},{"id":161,"name":"Denmark","code":"DNK"},{"id":207,"name":"Iceland","code":"ISL"},{"id":136,"name":"Indonesia","code":"IDN"},{"id":102,"name":"Norway","code":"NOR"},{"id":230,"name":"Saint Vincent and the Grenadines","code":"VCT"},{"id":127,"name":"South Korea","code":"KOR"},{"id":13,"name":"United States","code":"USA"},{"id":95,"name":"Portugal","code":"PRT"},{"id":44,"name":"Canada","code":"CAN"},{"id":12,"name":"Russia","code":"RUS"}]}},"origins":[{"id":15358,"title":"Emptying the Oceans: A Summary of Industrial Whaling Catches in the 20th Century","producer":"Rocha, Clapham & Ivashchenko","citationFull":"Rocha, R. C., Clapham, P. J., & Ivashchenko, Y. V. (2014). Emptying the oceans: a summary of industrial whaling catches in the 20th century. Marine Fisheries Review, 76(4), 37-48.","attributionShort":"Rocha et al.","urlMain":"https://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/content/emptying-oceans-summary-industrial-whaling-catches-20th-century","dateAccessed":"2026-05-29","datePublished":"2014","license":{"url":"https://repository.library.noaa.gov/Content%20and%20Copyright","name":"Public domain"}},{"id":15357,"title":"Total Whaling Catches (IWC)","description":"List of annual whale catches by the International Whaling Commission. Includes catches since the moratorium came into place in the 1985/6 Antarctic Season.  No blue whales (including pygmy blue whales) or right whales have been caught since the moratorium took effect and therefore neither species is listed in the catches.","producer":"International Whaling Commission (IWC)","citationFull":"International Whaling Commission (2026), \"Total Catches.\" IWC, iwc.int/management-and-conservation/whaling/total-catches","attributionShort":"IWC","urlMain":"https://iwc.int/management-and-conservation/whaling/total-catches","urlDownload":"https://iwc.int/total-catches20.download","dateAccessed":"2026-05-29","datePublished":"2026","license":{"url":"https://iwc.int/management-and-conservation/whaling/total-catches","name":"Copyright © International Whaling Commission 2026"}}]}