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The issue of aboriginal or subsistence whaling can be characterised as the connection between environmental opportunities and human survival. Thus, the IWC has exempted aboriginal whaling from its regulations designed for commercial whaling, but whale products are restricted for local use only.

IWC permitted quotas to the subsistence whaling in 1997. However, the catch limits are not adequate. The lack of adequate representation of indigenous people in the IWC comes in the way of negotiating realistic catch quotas. The countries concerned are more liberal in their domestic laws. Canada left the IWC in 1982 with the inclusion of the Moratorium and has allowed the Inuits to cull the Bowhead whales. Similarly, USA also issues permits for the Gray whale to the Makah Indian Tribes.

In 1997, a joint US-Russian proposal was passed, which allowed northeastern Siberian Chukotka people and Makah Tribe to harvest gray whales for five years. But Japan's four coastal tribes have not been allowed to catch whales. In IWC, Inuit of Greenland, Alaska, Chukotka are treated better than the Canadian Inuit. Japan criticises IWC for its discriminatory behaviour. Subsistence whalers disagree with the scientific estimates of the IWC. They claim that IWC estimates are based only on open water and believe that the number of whales are more than the IWC estimates.

The failure of the IWC led to the formation of the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO) in 1992. Greenland, Faroe Island, Iceland, Norway and Canada are members of NAMMCO. Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission or even larger body as Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which guards the interest of Inuit pose a direct threat to IWC as a parallel body to manage whaling.

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