Norway's Whale meat market weakens-Greenpeace Reveals Dumping at Sea
Klaus Merkle
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Pressrelease 990617
Norway's Whale meat market weakens
-Greenpeace Reveals Dumping at Sea
There is no Norwegian market for the tons of whale
blubber stored in freezers in Norway. Now, the whaling
industry is finding that even whale meat is a hard sell. Petter
Kjoelleberg, director of the whale meat depot in Lista, the
only depot in the South of Norway, admits that it is difficult
to sell the meat, and wants the export ban on whale meat to
be lifted. The Norwegian government is also working
actively for the lift of the ban.
- Norway says it only wants small scale coastal whaling but
at the same time is trying to open an export market. This
demonstrates that the whaling issue is not about Norwegian
whaling in isolation, but about the consequences that arise
when other countries choose to do as Norway does, says
Frode Pleym, from Greenpeace Nordic. Why should
Norway give itself the right to hunt whales when all other
countries, except for Japan, accept and follow the
international agreement on whaling?
Greenpeace, in the past few days, has documented the
vessel Villduen dumping the greater part of whales back in
the sea.
-Norway says they want the whales for food but we have
photographic evidence that most of each whale taken is
dumped into the sea after the parts that sell have been
removed, says Frode Pleym.
In 1986 the IWC (International Whaling Commission)
introduced an international moratorium on commercial
whaling to put an end to decades of uncontrolled whaling
and collapsing whale populations. This is also supported by
The Law of the Sea (in art 65) which requires all countries
to cooperate with the IWC for the conservation of whales.
Norway restarted commercial whaling in 1993, openly
flouting the IWC moratorium. Every year since, the IWC
has condemned Norway for continuing to hunt whales - and
every year the Norwegian government has ignored that
ruling.
Updated information to be found on
http://www.greenpeace.no/english or http://www.greenpeace.org
or
Greenpeace hemsida: www.greenpeace.se