posted on 2006-08-18

Whale News 2006

Some newsworthy items about whales from 2006.

World's sickest school trip

THIS is a school trip Japanese style. Not for these children a visit to a castle or museum.

Instead they watched a 10-ton whale being butchered, the latest victim of Japan's defiance of a 20-year world whaling ban.

The children giggled as blood poured from the animal, the first kill of the season east of Tokyo, while rubber booted workers with three-foot machetes carved it into brick-size chunks.

The Baird's beaked whale was one of 20,000 dolphins, porpoises and beaked whales that Japan kills every year, in addition to the 1,000 larger whales harpooned for "scientific research" in the North Pacific and Antarctic.

The killing came days after Japan succeeded by one vote in getting the whaling ban branded as "unnecessary" at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission.

Tokyo is now expected to intensify its efforts to get the 75 per cent majority it needs to get the ban scrapped altogether next year.

Georgina Davies of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said: "Japan and the countries doing its bidding are guilty of environmental vandalism." She said with huge stockpiles of whalemeat unsold, they were now trying to get schoolchildren to eat it.

Whale shot in front of tourists

Eager Norwegian whalers didn't do much to boost the image of their country's tourism industry this week, when they gunned down a whale before the eyes of tourists out on a whale-watching expedition.

Norway's whaling industry has sparked international protest over the years. This week, the protests came from the whalers' own hunting grounds.

Around 80 tourists had paid to go out on a whale-watching boat from Andenes, in northern Norway. Called "whale safaris" locally, the whale-watching has become an increasingly popular tourist attraction in recent years.

While the tourists were admiring one of the great mammals of the sea, however, a Norwegian whaling boat approached and shot the whale in front of their eyes.

Leontien Dieleman from the Netherlands was among those who was shocked by the slaughter they suddenly and unexpectedly witnessed.

"This really wasn't what we came to see," Dieleman told local newspaper Andøyposten.

As if the shooting wasn't enough, the tourists were also treated to the sight of another whaling boat hauling one of their own dead whales up on deck.

"It was a fantastic sight to see a whale swimming and breeching," Dieleman said. "On the way back to Andenes, though, we saw a dead whale on deck. The blood was running, it wasn't a pretty sight.

"I know that's part of life, but I don't think we expected to see anything like that."

'Unfortunate'
Geir Maan, skipper on board the whale-watching boat Reine, called the incident "unfortunate." He told Andøyaposten that he was surprised when the whalers went ahead and shot a whale so close to his tourist vessel.

He said he and his crews try to explain Norway's controversial whale hunt to the tourists keen to see whales. He noted that the authorities also have used "a lot of time and energy to get whale hunting accepted in Norway." Shooting a whale in front of tourists was "like throwing oil on a fire that was about to die out."

Maan told the local newspaper that his passengers were "quite upset" by the shooting. He said he'd spoken to several whalers earlier this year, "and they assured me they wouldn't shoot near us."

Passenger Gertjan Toorenaar said he'd heard of Norway's whale hunt before, "but it was something else to see it with our own eyes. This is a part of the Norwegian culture, but I don't like it at all."

No sympathy
Jan Kristiansen, who represents the whalers, defended the shootings. He claimed the whalers were simply taking advantage of the nice weather, when the hunting is best.

"Many of the whaling boats had been tied up at the dock for several days, waiting for better weather," he said. "When it finally came, we have to make the most of it."

Kristiansen claimed that he and the other whalers "don't have anything against the whale safari boats... but it's important to get across that it's the extreme opponents of whaling that travel out to see whales.

"We can't prevent them from being against the hunt, and they can't prevent us from hunting."

Aftenposten English Web Desk
Nina Berglund

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