CDNN ECO WARNING: NorwayPUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTMonday 22 August 2005 Norway
This Eco Warning is being issued to accurately inform the public about Norway government policies that threaten marine wildlife. ACT NOW and Make a Difference. Boycott Norway. |
Norway's whalers began their season stealthily this weekend, their boats leaving unannounced for the controversial hunt. After years of protests, sabotage and high-sea confrontations, whalers and the Norwegian government are skittish about releasing hunt details. All they would say this year is that the hunt's quota is 671 minke whales divided among roughly 50 boats, that the season opened yesterday and that it lasts into July. "We can say that the first boat has already left and that no whales have been taken yet. That is all,'' Per Olav Rolandsen, of the Norwegian Fish Sales Cooperative, said by telephone from the Lofoten Islands above the Arctic Circle, the centre of Norway's whaling industry. Norway sparked outrage from many governments and animal activists when it resumed its commercial whale hunt in 1993. The move was made in the face of a 1986 ban declared by the International Whaling Commission. Despite the criticism, last year's hunt was notable for the absence of protests. Only one whaling boat was sabotaged, and that was before the season began. IWC scientists acknowledged last year that the population of minke whales is large enough that the Norwegian hunt does not endanger their survival, while most other whale species are still considered close to extinction. Minke, the smallest of the baleen whales, can grow up to nine metres long. Opponents say estimates of minke whale populations are uncertain, that whales are special creatures that should never be hunted, or that harpooning is a cruel hunting method. Others, including many governments, say Norway should respect the whaling ban in the spirit of international cooperation, even though it is not legally binding. Previous years' protests have included boycotts and sanction threats, activists chaining themselves to whaling boats, repeated attempts to burn or sink the vessels at their wharfs, and activists pursuing whaling boats in the ocean. The risk to some boats is considered so great that they are insured as if they were in a war zone, the newspaper Aftenposten reported today. | 
