Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
perspective,thattheyadheretoasensiblequotasystemandnowadoptmorehumanemeth-
ods of killing. The Norwegians claim that they support only traditional, family-owned op-
erations and have no intention of returning to industrial whaling.
At a popular level, many Norwegians also feel that conservationists are mainly city folk
who have an overly sentimental if unrealistic relationship with animals. Many also see
threats not to the animals but to a traditional Norwegian industry and Norwegian freedom
of action.
In addition to hunting, a major threat to Norwegian whales comes from chemical pollu-
tion, particularly the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are suspected of damaging
cetacean reproductive and immune systems, a phenomenon that has already led to numer-
ous deaths from viral infections.
For a Norwegian perspective on whaling, stop by the Whaling Museum in Sandefjord,
along Norway's southern coast. For more on whale species and populations in Norwegian
waters,
Click here
.
Follow the whaling debate at Greenpeace UK (
www.greenpeace.org.uk
)
, the Whale and Dolphin Conser-
vation Society (
www.wdcs.org
), the High North Alliance (
www.highnorth.no
)
and the Norwegian Min-
istry of Fisheries (
www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/fkd.html
?id=257).
Norway's Recent Practice
Norway resumed commercial whaling of minke whales in 1993 in defiance of an interna-
tional whaling ban but under its registered objection to the 1986 moratorium. While Nor-
way supports the protection of threatened species, the government contends that minke
whales, with a northeast Atlantic population of an allegedly estimated 100,000, can sustain
a limited harvest. The Norwegian government, after a unanimous vote, issued a quota of
1052 in 2006, a 30% increase on the previous year's quota and more than half the num-
ber of minke whales Norway hunted every year before the moratorium was imposed. The
quotadroppedslightlyin2007and2008,butinlate2009,inthemidstofcomplicatedtalks
between pro- and anti-whaling nations, Norway announced a 45% increase in its minke-
whale quota, from 885 in 2009 to 1286 in 2010; despite the quotas and Norway's planned
increase, Norwegian whale hunters killed 484 minke whales in 2009, just over half their
allocated quota. The increase has been condemned by international environmental groups
such as Greenpeace and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
Japan and Norway resumed trading in whale meat in 2004 and it tends to be the export
market that drives the industry rather than domestic consumption, although whale meat is
