Cultural differences the Devon humpback which has been drawing huge crowds had to be rescued by volunteers from British Divers Marine Life Rescue, whilst Norway announces its plans to kill more minke whales.

Whale & Dolphin Conservation

‘REALLY, NORWAY, YOU WANT TO KILL EVEN MORE WHALES THOUGH NO ONE WANTS TO EAT THEM?

‘Norwegian Fisheries Minister, Per Sandberg, has confirmed that Norway has allocated itself a quota of 999 minke whales for the 2017 catch, an increase of 119 whales on last year’s quota of 880.

Norwegian whalers hunt minke whales for commercial purposes, exploiting a loophole around the Norway’s ‘objection’ to the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) global ban on commercial whaling and over the past decade, have killed between 464 – 736 minke whales each year. Indeed, some years, Norway has killed more whales than Iceland and Japan combined and these days, is the world´s biggest commercial whaling nation.

However, as Truls Soløy, leader of the Norwegian Whalers Association, admits “people in Norway do not eat whale… there are too few players on the buying side”. The simple fact is that, despite government subsidies and marketing campaigns, domestic demand for whale meat is declining, with young people especially regarding it as ‘old-fashioned’. Only last month, we reported that 5,000 boxes (around 60 tons) of minke whale meat donated by Myklebust Hvalprodukter (Myklebust Whale Products), one of the country’s largest whale meat processors and exporters, were given away. 

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