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After the dramatic discovery of the ozone hole in 1986, activists, particularly working with Greenpeace, campaigned for an international ban on the use of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, often used in refrigeration. In 1987 country representatives in the United Nations wrote the Montreal Protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer as an international treaty calling on countries to phase out and ban chlorofluorocarbons. 

In 1985, the International Whaling Commission instituted a moratorium on commercial whaling, but in 1986, the Japanese government started a scientific whaling program to study whales. Many observers view the scientific whaling scheme as a way to continue commercial whaling because the whale meat is often sold after the whales are caught for study. 

The International Whaling Commission permits whaling for research purposes and allows whales to be discarded by lethal means as long as whale meat is not used and sold from the specimens. Japanese whalers, who are permitted to whale strictly for research purposes, have not published any peer-reviewed journal articles.  In addition, whale meat frequently appears in Japanese markets and sushi bars with the only possible source being from these Japanese whalers who are killing whales and not publishing research.