Norway begins whaling season, 797 whales set to die

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Norway begins whaling season, 797 whales set to die

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 22:24:10 -0700

 

 

Norway's Disputed Whaling Season Opens

 

Mon Apr 18, 2:53 PM ET

 

By DOUG MELLGREN, Associated Press Writer

 

OSLO, Norway - The world's only commercial whaling

season opened in

Norway

on Monday, with about 30 boats pursuing their highest

quota since the

country resumed the hunt in 1993.

 

 

 

Hunters are allowed by the government to harpoon 797

minke whales by

Aug.

31. Last year, the quota was 670.

 

 

Norway is not bound by a worldwide ban imposed by the

International

Whaling

Commission because the group's rules allow members to

reject decisions

they

oppose. The ban was imposed to protect endangered

species from

extinction.

 

 

Japan and Iceland conduct research hunts allowed by

the commission.

 

 

In the 1990s, the Norwegian whaling season became a

battleground

between

whalers and activists. Whaling boats were sabotaged,

pursued through

the

oceans and even boarded by protesters, some of whom

were repelled by

force.

 

 

" Now all that is over. It's quiet, " said Per Olav

Rolandsen of the

Norwegian

Fish Sales Association.

 

 

The association, based at the center of the Norwegian

whaling industry

on

the Lofoten Islands of the Arctic, closely monitors

the hunt. Rolandsen

said

it was unclear when the first boats would leave port.

 

 

The boats typically leave quietly, fearing a

resurgence of protests.

 

 

Norway claims minke whales, the smallest of the baleen

whales at up to

30

feet long, are plentiful along its coast, can sustain

a hunt and

provide

essential income to many coastal communities.

 

 

Greenpeace activist Truls Gulowsen, currently aboard

the group's ship

Esperanza in the Lofotens, said, " Increased whaling is

no solution for

the

problems along the coast. "

 

 

" Whaling takes the focus away from the real threats to

the coast, "

including

overfishing and the risk of oil industry pollution,

Gulowsen said.

 

 

For the first time since the hunts resumed, the

whaling boats ‹ usually

small trawlers that fish the rest of the year ‹ will

sail without a

government inspector aboard to monitor that the kills

with

explosive-tipped

harpoons are humane.

 

 

Halvard P. Johansen, of the Norwegian fisheries

directorate, said this

year

boats will have instead sensors aboard to record hunt

details, such as

the

number of harpoons fired from a cannon and the number

of whales

butchered.

 

 

Norwegians eat the red meat of whales, mainly as

steaks but also as

hamburgers and sausages.

 

 

The fatty blubber, once the most valuable part of the

whale, is now

worthless because there is no market for it in Norway

and attempts to

export

it have failed, Rolandsen said.

 

 

The association already has destroyed hundreds of tons

of stockpiled

blubber

and refuses to buy more, so whalers will dump the fat

into the ocean,

he

said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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