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Norwegian whaling season closes under quota

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Norwegian whaling season closes under quota

Despite an international ban on commercial whaling, Norway has continued to hunt minke whales in the North Atlantic since 1993 through a legal ‘objection’ lodged against the ban.
 
Out of a total 2006/07 annual quota of 1052 minke whales (152 in the distant Jan Mayen Zone, 900 in the easier to reach Norwegian coastal waters), just under half the quota remains untaken at the close of the season: 592 whales have been killed in the coastal area, whilst none were taken from the Jan Mayen quota. 
 
The 2006/07 season has been plagued with controversy. Earlier this year, a whaling vessel captain admitted to breaking regulations by killing a minke whale in an area where whaling is prohibited, in what he said was a  in protest at the government’s restrictions on whaling in Norwegian coastal waters. 
 
In July, Norwegian media reported that the Norwegian Food Safety Authority had forced a whale meat retailer to destroy more than a ton of whale meat which had been put on sale without gaining the approval of a Food Safety Authority inspector. The Authority said it feared that at least 300 kilograms of whale meat from the company may have been sold before the breach was uncovered.
 
“It is remarkable that not only have the Norwegian whalers failed to meet the annual quota for the last five years running, they have only ever met the overall quota once in the last ten years. Yet the Norwegian Government continues to set a quota twice the apparent demand of either the market or the whalers, allocating a portion of the quota to a distant area where the whalers rarely travel to hunt. One explanation for this inconsistency may be that the Government perceives that setting these high quotas raises political pressure at international fora such as CITES and the IWC” said WDCS whaling expert, Philippa Brakes.
 
Domestic sales of whale meat in Norway have continued to flag, and the largest potential export market, Japan, remains closed. By the end of July this year, the Norwegian market for whale meat was saturated, with just one buyer showing any interest in buying whale meat in August.  According to sources in the Norwegian fisheries industry, the situation has become so desperate that whalers risk losses of up to 40 million kroner (nearly US$ 7 million or GBP 3.4 million) over the course of 2007 and 2008.
 
Apparently concerned that the industry seems to be in a free-fall, the whalers are looking to ever-more improbable ways to push their product. In 2005 the Norwegian whalers tried to promote the whale burger, hoping to cash in on a fast-food raised younger generation.  When sales remained flat, the industry moved on to hawking whale meat at summer fairs in the Hvalmobilen, urging people to give whale meat a try.  And the latest venture?  Trying to promote whale meat as haute cuisine. 
 
A group of master chefs from northern Norway have published a cookbook of whale meat recipes including red wine marinated whale beef, and whale steaks with avocado salsa.  The book, financed in part by the whaling industry, and the floundering market might explain recent calls by the whaling industry to use the 2008 Bocuse d’Or culinary competition in Stavanger as a platform to promote whale meat.
Source: WDCS /Avisa Nordland/ Lofotposten /Fiskeribladet /

http://www.hvalbiff.no and http://www.Lofoten.com and http://www.highnorth.no

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Please think about sending your old laser or ink jet cartridges to the WDCS office in Plymouth where we are collecting them for recycling. Also your old and unwanted cell phones. It is a great way to help with fundraising for WDCS and at the same time sending into recycling those items that can be difficult to dispose of appropriately.

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Mother Ocean

Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call
Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall
You’ve seen it all, you’ve seen it all

Watched the men who rode you switch from sails to steam
And in your belly you hold the treasures few have ever seen

Jimmy Buffet

I heard “A Pirate Looks at 40” yesterday and thought the lyrics are more poignant than, perhaps, Jimmy Buffet intended.  I’ve read that the ocean contains 362 trillion gallons of water, which is why “her belly” can hold huge treasures - whales.  And considering the world population is more than 6 billion, it’s likely that few people have seen whales.

And, yes, the ocean has seen it all- think about the fact that, due to the recycling of water- the ocean water Cat’s Paw filters through her baleen during each meal is the same water that Cleopatra sailed on in the Nile.   But what I find poignant in the lyrics is the “switch from sails to steam” and the “treasures unseen”. 

Each year vessels seem to get larger and faster- and the unfortunate result, for whales, is more and more vessels strike.   Some due to the fact that whales are not easy to see.  It may sound ridiculous to think that it is difficult to see an animal like SOD, but as a typical whale, she’ll spend less than 20% of her time at the surface.  As mammals, whales must surface to breathe, but most of the resources they need to survive are below the surface, but not always far enough below to be out of harms way. 

Some of the large ships have drafts (the amount of ship below the surface) of more than 15 meters (>50’).  So, if Reflection is feeding around relatively shallow areas, such as the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, where the water depth averages about 30 meters (~100’), she can be in the danger zone in 50% of the water column.  And while size matters, speed matters more.  Even a very small boat, going fast enough, can kill a whale.  Slowing down not only reduces the potential injury, but reduces the risk of the strike from happening by increasing the chances of the whale moving out of harms way. 

The support you provide through the Whale Adoption Project does many things – it gets us on the water to provide you with information on your whale, it provides us the opportunity to get information about the issues whales face, and most importantly, it provides us the opportunity to fight for important regulations like the Proposed Rule to Implement Speed Restrictions to Reduce the Threat of Ship Collisions with North Atlantic Right Whales. 

Kind Regards,

Michael Waterson
Treasurer
WDCS (NA)
http://www.whales.org

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