Whaling in Norway

[rollingrock]

Norway registered an objection to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) commercial whaling moratorium, and is thus not bound by it. In 1993, Norway resumed a commercial catch, following a period of five years where a small catch was made under scientific permit. Norwegian Minke whale catches have fluctuated between 218 animals in 1995 and 646 in 2003.

Prior to the moratorium, Norway caught around 2,000 Minke whales per year. The North Atlantic hunt is divided into five areas and usually lasts from early May to late August. Norway has exported a limited amount of whale meat to the Faroes and Iceland. It has been attempting to export to Japan for several years, though this has been hampered by concerns in the Japanese domestic market about the effects of pollution in the blubber of the North Atlantic Minke whale.

A famous phrase related to Whaling, particularly in Norway, is "Ta din posisjon på harpoon" which roughly translated in to English means, "man the harpoons".

In May 2004, the Norwegian Parliament passed a resolution to considerably increase the number of Minkes hunted each year. The Ministry of Fisheries also initiated a satellite tracking programme of various whale species to monitor migration patterns and diving behaviour. The tagging research program has been under way since 1999.<2>

Since 2006, when the Norwegian whaling quota was increased by 30%, Norwegian whalers have been allowed to hunt a quota of 1,052 Minke whales a year. Since the 1993 hunt resumption the Norwegian quota has rarely been fully met


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Norway





Brochures published by the Norwegian government claim that whale meat is sold in Norway where it is a traditional part of the Norwegian diet.

The reality is that there is little market for the meat in Norway - the real goal of Norway's whalers is export to Japan where prices paid for whale meat are several times higher than in Norway.

The Japanese connection

The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) currently lists all the great whales on its Appendix I, under which the international trade in whale products is prohibited.

Japan and Norway are both lobbying aggressively, to downlist whales from Appendix I to Appendix II, thereby reopening trade.

In early 2001, the Norwegian government announced that it would allow the export of whale meat and blubber to Japan, even though such trade is prohibited under CITES.

A spokesperson for the whalers public relations arm described the decision as 'the final victory'. Greenpeace has documented tons of frozen blubber, each block carefully wrapped and labelled in Japanese, stored in Norwegian industrial freezers, waiting for export.

A resumption of international trade in whale products would have dire implications. Pirate whalers will have an even greater incentive to hunt whales covertly, as it will become easier for them to smuggle illegal whale meat into Japan.

Even with the current trade ban in place, illegal whale meat from both abundant and endangered species of whales is regularly discovered on sale in Japan.

www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/whaling/norwegian-whaling


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I'm curious. Norway is another a country which is very active in commercial whaling, but only Japan gets the negative attention in the press? Why are they getting a pass?

[JonQ]

1. Does japan kill more whales?

And are they more endangered in the Pacific than the atlantic?

I don't know, those were just some possibilities off the top of my head.

[MoonRiver]

2. Disgusting.

We were in Norway a number of years ago, and whale was on a restaurant menu. Our Norwegian hosts who took us to the restaurant were apologizing effusively, but for we two, seeing that...:puke: