The International Whaling Commission's 70th meeting coincides with the 80th anniversary of the convention that created it and the 40th anniversary of the ban on commercial whaling.

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• The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was signed in Washington, D.C., in December 1946 and founded the International Whaling Commission.
• The convention was introduced because whale populations were declining rapidly, with some species close to extinction from hunting for oil and baleen.
• The Commission's 70th meeting is being held in Hobart, Australia, from September 28 to October 2, with about 300 delegates from 63 countries.
• The Commission began introducing whale protection measures in the 1960s after significant population declines.
• A complete ban on commercial whaling took effect in 1986, and its 40th anniversary also falls this year.
• The Commission's chair, Nick Gales, has called the moratorium one of the most effective actions in the biological world, crediting it with recovery of some species.
• The meeting will consider a Hobart Declaration marking the anniversaries, past challenges and a future vision for the Commission.
• The Commission now has 89 member governments, after Japan withdrew in 2019 to resume commercial whaling.
• India has been a member since 1981, and the Commission declared the entire Indian Ocean a whale sanctuary at its 1979 meeting.
• Today's threats include fisheries bycatch, vessel collisions, entanglement in nets and ocean noise, alongside a long-running proposal for a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary.