Norway expands whale hunt

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Norway Prepares for Controversial International Whale Trade

 

 

>From International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW -- www.ifaw.org)

Wednesday, February 20, 2002

 

CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS - As the May 2002 meeting of the International

Whaling Commission (IWC) nears, Norway has announced it will increase the

number of whales it will kill this year to 674. The International Fund for

Animal Welfare (IFAW - www.ifaw.org) today criticized Norway's decision,

saying that if this quota is reached it will be the biggest Norwegian whale

catch since the international moratorium on whaling came into effect in

1986.

IFAW also warned that Norway's new catch limit of 674 minke whales, up from

last year's limit of 552, is yet another indication of Norway's

determination to resume the international trade in whale parts with Japan.

Norway has made no secret of the fact that it wishes to trade whale meat and

blubber with Japan and maintains a reservation on the ban on international

trade in whale products implemented under the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

 

Norway sets its own limit for the number of whales it takes each year. Until

2000, Norway claimed that their catch limits adhered to an IWC sanctioned

formula, the Revised Management Procedure, designed to prevent whale

populations from being overexploited. Yet, experts note that last year's

catch was much higher than would have been allowed by the agreed formula,

while this year's catch limit is higher still.

 

In an effort to secure the approval of IWC members for their proposed trade,

Japan and Norway have been working on DNA registration systems, which allow

the origin of whale products to be determined. The two countries claim that

with such testing regimes in place, they can resume a controlled and

monitored whale trade. However, despite requests from the IWC, Japan and

Norway have not shared this data with other IWC member countries, and have

denied international access to and monitoring of this system. Ongoing joint

IFAW and University of Auckland (New Zealand) research based on DNA analysis

of Japanese whale meat market samples has demonstrated that meat from

internationally protected whale species is being sold in Japan.

 

" 2002 could be a disastrous year for whale conservation, " said IFAW

President, Fred O'Regan. " Despite international efforts to control whaling

and protect whales, Norway is continuously pushing to kill as many whales as

it can and is now preparing to trade internationally with Japan. We are now

drifting dangerously close to a revival of the commercial whaling industry,

which once threatened to wipe out the great whales. "

 

End.

 

 

 

 

For more information, contact:

Jennifer Ferguson-Mitchell

Communications Manager

International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW -- www.ifaw.org)

(508) 744-2076

jfm

Web site: http://www.ifaw.org

 

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