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Close to the Dumont D'Urville Base

Description

A rorqual breathes in the icy waters, protected species. Early in the 20th century, the rapacious global appetite for whale oil and other products drove whalers to the Southern Ocean, with disastrous results for whales. In 1994, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) established the Southern Ocean as a whale sanctuary called the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary (SOWS). Japan has continued to kill whales in the Sanctuary under an exemption for so-called research whaling.