From:  The Humane Society of the United States From 1972 to 1982, mighty battles were waged; many whale protection groups, including The Humane Society of the United States, participated in the decade-long fight. Each year the IWC defeated the moratorium but due to our constant pressure, set the quotas lower and lower. The big showdown between non-whaling and whaling countries occurred in 1982. An indefinite moratorium finally had the three-fourths majority needed to pass. The compromises made to achieve the moratorium, however, included delaying implementation until 1986 and promising to review the effects of the moratorium on whale stocks beginning in 1990. The moratorium remains in place now only because the pro-whaling nations of Japan and Norway cannot garner the three-fourths majority of votes necessary to overturn it.