Norway reopened its annual whale hunting season earlier this month, continuing a practice most countries abandoned decades ago. By the mid-20th century, industrial whaling had pushed many whale species to the brink of extinction. To stop the collapse, the International Whaling Commission implemented a global moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s. While most nations agreed to abide by the ban, Norway objected. Since then, Norway has killed more than 16,000 whales . That’s more than any other country, including Japan and Iceland , which are the only two other countries that also allow whales to be killed for profit. This year, Norway will permit the killing of 1,641 minke whales—the only species it commercially hunts, which migrates from warmer tropical waters to the northern coast of Norway and the Barents Sea in late spring and summer to feed on small fish. We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or once a week, our original stories and digest of ...