A bar chart showing the number of whales killed globally per decade from 1900 to 2010.

Bar chart illustrating the historical trend of whale killings per decade, showing a peak in the mid-20th century.

Number of whales killed globally per decade 700,000 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 0 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Decade Data source: International Whaling Commission (IWC) & Rocha et al. (2014) Note: Data is presented as decadal totals where '1900' is equal to the total catch from 1900 to 1909; '1910' is from 1910 to 1919 etc. For the decade '2010', only the years 2010 to 2018 are included. Our World in Data OurWorldinData.org/biodiversity | CC BY