Norway’s Fisheries Ministry announced that it has lowered the annual quota of minke whales allowed to be caught by commercial fishing companies by 16 percent. The new quota will take effect in 2009, allowing whalers to catch 885 minke whales next year as opposed to 1,052 this year.
Norway is one of the only nations that still hunts whales commercially, although they haven’t met their quota in years due to the difficulty involved in catching minke whales. Environmentalists are still angry, however, that Norway endorses whaling at all. Greenpeace released a statement that the annual hunt is pointless and should simply be stopped.
Although Norwegians eat the whale’s meat, there is no modern use for blubber, so all of that fat gets dumped. Greenpeace also noted that “this summer, the whalers were called home in the middle of the season due to low demand. The government’s adherence to whaling is pure symbolic politics.”
The Norwegian government sticks to its claims that whaling helps local coastal communities, and that its minke stock is healthy and managed for ideal sustainability. But neither camp seems willing to give any leeway on the issue, so Norway will continue catching for the foreseeable future.
The “moratorium” on whaling is actually described as a “pause” by the IWC in numerous places on their website. The IWC’s only interest in whale conservation is for a future resumption of commercial whaling activities the IWC regularly condemns organizations like the SSCS actions. Use this link and scroll down to “Conservation And Management” and you’ll find: “the IWC decided at its meeting in 1982 that there should be a **pause** (the ‘moratorium’) in commercial whaling on all whale stocks from 1985/86”.
http://www.iwcoffice.org/commission/iwcmain.htm
Norway complied with IWC rules concerning the pause in whaling they gave their notification in a timely manner as outlined in article XI of the Convention.
“Any Contracting Government may withdraw from this Convention on 30th June, of any year by giving notice on or before 1st January, of the same year to the depository Government, which upon receipt of such a notice shall at once communicate it to the other Contracting Governments. Any other Contracting Government may, in like manner, within one month of the receipt of a copy of such a notice from the depository Government give notice of withdrawal, so that the Convention shall cease to be in force on 30th June, of the same year with respect to the Government giving such notice of withdrawal”.
Norway is breaking NO LAW!
How about lowering it to 0 to be in accordance with the global moratorium on commercial whaling? Since when is Norway above the law and since when are whales “stock”? Do they “make” them, do they do anything to improve the “stock”‘s health and quantity? Barbarians will always be barbarians…