It has been almost forty years since the International Whaling Commission voted for an indefinite pause in commercial whaling. And yet, whaling continues - albeit at a much reduced rate. Until recently, much of this ongoing commercial whaling was being disguised as scientific research, which gave rise to some thorny ethical issues for scientists. If whales are being killed anyway, should they take advantage of the opportunity to study them? Or does participating in such studies increase the likelihood of the whales being killed? And who should regulate such issues? I wrote a piece for Hakai Magazine - my first piece for a fantastic publication, for which I have long wanted to write - based on a paper by Vassili Papastavrou, Conor Ryan, and Peter Sand - that delved into this thicket of questions.