Save the Whales!

The "Save the Whales" movement stands as one of history's most effective environmental and marketing campaigns, successfully shifting public perception of whales from industrial resources to intelligent, protected species. Early conservation efforts in the 1930s failed to curb industrial whaling, which reached a peak of 80,000 kills annually by the 1960s. The movement gained momentum in the 1970s through cultural milestones like the album *Songs of the Humpback Whale* and aggressive activist tactics, including Greenpeace’s "mind bombs" and Sea Shepherd’s direct action against pirate whaling ships. These efforts culminated in the 1986 International Whaling Commission moratorium. Despite this, commercial whaling persists in nations like Japan and Norway, fueled by government subsidies and nostalgia, even as modern threats like bycatch and climate change now pose greater risks to global whale populations.