{"id":1269785,"name":"Total number of whales caught per decade","unit":"whales","createdAt":"2026-06-07T17:27:30.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-06-07T17:27:30.000Z","coverage":"","timespan":"1900-2020","datasetId":7977,"columnOrder":0,"shortName":"total","catalogPath":"grapher/biodiversity/2026-05-29/long_run_whaling/long_run_whaling_decades#total","descriptionShort":"Total number of whales caught per decade","descriptionProcessing":"- Data after 1990 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-1990 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":"#4C6A9C"},"schemaVersion":2,"processingLevel":"minor","presentation":{"titlePublic":"All whale species","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-1990, and the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for data after 1990.","The year shown is the start year of the decade. For example, 1950 represents the decade from 1950-1959.","Data pre-1990 does not include aboriginal subsistence whaling as it focusses on industrial whaling. Data after 1990 from the IWC includes subsistence whaling."],"dimensions":{"years":{"values":[{"id":1900},{"id":1910},{"id":1920},{"id":1930},{"id":1940},{"id":1950},{"id":1960},{"id":1970},{"id":1980},{"id":1990},{"id":2000},{"id":2010},{"id":2020}]},"entities":{"values":[{"id":355,"name":"World","code":"OWID_WRL"},{"id":44,"name":"Canada","code":"CAN"},{"id":161,"name":"Denmark","code":"DNK"},{"id":136,"name":"Indonesia","code":"IDN"},{"id":14,"name":"Japan","code":"JPN"},{"id":102,"name":"Norway","code":"NOR"},{"id":12,"name":"Russia","code":"RUS"},{"id":230,"name":"Saint Vincent and the Grenadines","code":"VCT"},{"id":270,"name":"USSR","code":"OWID_USS"},{"id":13,"name":"United States","code":"USA"},{"id":207,"name":"Iceland","code":"ISL"},{"id":127,"name":"South Korea","code":"KOR"}]}},"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"}}]}