Why did commercial whaling move from Antarctica to the North Pacific?

Commercial whaling did not move from Antarctica to the North Pacific due to a strategic shift in preference; rather, it shifted as a result of the systematic depletion of whale populations in the Antarctic.1

Following World War II, intensive overfishing decimated whale stocks in the Antarctic, beginning with the blue whale population in the 1940s, followed by fin and humpback whales between 1955 and 1970, and eventually the sei whale. As these once-abundant populations were exhausted, commercial whaling operations moved to the North Pacific in search of remaining stocks. This pattern reflects the broader history of whaling, which is characterized by the rapid depletion of one whale population after another, moving from the most accessible species to those that were more difficult to hunt.12

It is a fundamental ethical principle that the exploitation of natural resources must be conducted with restraint to prevent the extinction of species, a standard that was historically ignored by the whaling industry in favor of short-term commercial gain.23