| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
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| 109.1 | | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Jun 09 1986 09:50 | 88 |
| Associated Press Sun 08-JUN-1986 12:46 Whaling Conference
Whaling Nations To Meet; Facing Opposition And Disorder
By DICK SODERLUND
Associated Press Writer
MALM�, Sweden (AP) - The International Whaling Commission opens its
38th annual conference Monday, and at the top of the agenda is an
indefinite ban on commercial whaling which took effect this year and
has already been violated.
During the five-day conference, delegates will also review the killing
of whales for scientific purposes and so-called aboriginal subsistence
whaling. This type of whaling allows Greenlanders and Inuit Eskimos in
Alaska and Soviet Siberia to catch a certain number of whales for
nutritional and cultural needs.
In 1946, 17 countries signed the International Whaling Convention which
limits the hunting season to a few months a year and prohibits the
taking of certain animals, such as females with calves. The convention
set up the International Whaling Commission which now has 41 members
and meets once a year to review the industry. Resolutions must be
passed by a two-thirds majority, but are non-binding.
A 1982 resolution indefinitely banned commercial whale hunting,
starting in 1986. The measure said the commission would review the ban
by 1990. If the whale stock is considered to have recovered, the
commission might meet before 1990 and set new catch quotas, the
resolution said.
Japan, Norway and the Soviet Union, which took about 90 percent of the
world's whale catch in 1982, lodged a formal protest against the
resolution. Four other countries also objected. The Soviet Union is
said to have continued to hunt minke whales in the Antarctic Sea in
1985-86.
The Norwegian hunt in Arctic waters and Japan's coastal whaling are
expected to proceed as usual this summer. Norwegian whalers killed
about 700 minke whales during the 1985 season and are expected to take
at least 400 more this year.
Dr. Sidney Holt, a British whaling expert with the World Wildlife Fund,
said the outcome of the Malm� conference would be crucial for the
survival of some types of whales. "We must see to it that the
moratorium with zero catch quotas is adhered to," he said. "Perhaps it
is already too late for some species."
Holt said the minke whale, a species extensively hunted by Norway,
Iceland and Greenland, could be extinct within 10 years. "Maybe the
stock is already so depleted it is beyond the reproduction stage," he
said.
Holt and Dr. Robert Paine, an American whale expert and a member of
Antigua's delegation, said they feared the conference could lead to
such sharp disagreements that the moratorium would be scrapped and
possibly the commission be dissolved.
Norway has indicated that Norway, along with Iceland, the
semi-autonomous Danish territories of Greenland and the Faeroe Islands,
might pull out of the organization, said delegation sources who spoke
on the condition of anonymity.
Canada has already left the group and now attends as an observer. Paine
said that if members leave to form a North Atlantic whaling group of
their own, it would jeopardize efforts to save the minke whale and
other species and lead to uncontrolled whaling.
Delegates are also expected to discuss a proposal to issue some permits
to allow the killing of whales for scientific purposes. Sture Yberger,
head of Sweden's delegation, said he expected controversy over both
"scientific" and "aboriginal" whaling. Japan, for example, is
reportedly seeking to have its coastal whaling included in the
aboriginal subsistence category.
Iceland and South Korea indicated they will allow whaling to continue
for "scientific research" and the Philippines announced plans to
continue taking increasingly rare Bryde's whales.
Delegates will also review a whaling prohibition in the Indian Ocean
and hear reports from those attending as international observers. Among
the obervers are the international environmentalist group Greenpeace
and the World Wildlife Fund.
Japan is the biggest importer of whale meat. Experts have said
commercial whaling by Iceland, the Soviet Union and other countries
would decline sharply if Japan decreased its consumption. Portugal is
the only major whaling country that is not a member of the commission.
|
| 109.2 | U.S. considering trade ban | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Tue Jun 10 1986 10:08 | 56 |
| Associated Press Mon 09-JUN-1986 19:14 Norway-Whales
Commerce Department Scores Norway on Whale Hunting
By TOM RAUM
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, claiming that
Norway is defying an international prohibition against killing whales,
on Monday announced steps that could lead to a ban on Norwegian fish
products.
Norway in 1985 exported some $1 billion in fish products, including
$143 million to the United States, mostly salmon, sardines and shrimp,
according to Commerce Department figures. Reagan adminstration
officials said the steps announced by Baldrige represented an
environmental protest against Norweign harvesting of whales in the
North Atlantic rather than a trade dispute.
Baldrige sent to President Reagan a "certification" that Norway, in
catching Minke whales, was undermining efforts by the International
Whaling Commission (IWC) to protect the mammals. Under U.S. law, Reagan
has 60 days to decide the next step, which could include an embargo of
all or part of Norway's fish-product imports to the United States.
"We've been negotiating with the Norwegians since late l982 in an
effort to get them to abide by the IWC ban on whaling. We just have
failed in our negotiations. We are now seriously considering a ban of
their products," said department spokesman Brian E. Gorman. Norway took
whales in the North Atlantic as recently as the end of last year,
Gorman said.
The Center for Environmental Education called upon Reagan to move
forward on the case and impose trade sanctions on Norway. "We're rather
mildly surprised that they (the Commerce Department) moved on it and
we're glad," said Roger McManus, a spokesman for the 400,000-member
conservationist group.
A 1971 U.S. law allows the United States to boycott a country's fish
products if that nation is violating certain international fishing
agreements. That law has been invoked six times since its enactment,
but trade sanctions were not imposed in any of those cases.
Under the law, Reagan must notify Congress of his actions and, if he
fails to impose a ban on Norwegian fish products, must explain to
lawmakers why he did not, Gorman said.
The 40-nation IWC, of which both Norway and the United States are
members, regulates commercial whaling but has no enforcement powers.
The United States has backed a full moratorium on commercial whaling
since 1972. Norway has lodged a formal objection with the IWC to such a
ban.
B.Jay Cooper, chief aide to Baldrige, said Norway could avoid the
possibility of the trade sanctions if they would withdraw those
objections and "would just get out of the whaling business."
|
| 109.3 | Norway stands fast | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Tue Jun 10 1986 10:14 | 54 |
| Associated Press Mon 09-JUN-1986 17:45 Whaling Commission
Delegate: Norway Will Hunt Whales Despite U.S. Threats
By DICK SODERLUND
Associated Press Writer
MALM�, Sweden (AP) - Norway's chief delegate to the International
Whaling Commission said Monday that his country will continue its
commercial whaling despite U.S. threats to embargo Norwegian fish
products.
The delegate, Per Tresselt, said Norway's new Labor government will not
halt this summer's North Atlantic whale hunt but will review all
aspects of the whaling issue. Tresselt was responding to an
announcement in Washington Monday that the United States is considering
a ban on Norwegian fish imports in an effort to get Norway to stop
commercial whaling.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige sent President Reagan a
certification that Norway was harvesting whales in the North Atlantic
despite a 1982 ban approved by the commission. Baldrige claimed the
Norwegian behavior was undermining the 40-year-old commission's efforts
to protect whales.
Tresselt denied reports that Norway planned to leave the 41-nation
commission to form a separate association of North Atlantic whaling
nations.
As delegates arrived at the town hall of this southern Swedish city for
a weeklong conference - considered critical to the survival of some
endangered whale species - they were met by demonstrators from
Greenpeace and other conservation groups attending the meeting. The
demonstrators displayed an inflated whale replica about 25 feet long
and played recorded whale sounds.
Swedish Environment Minister Birgitta Dahl opened the session with a
plea for adherence by all nations to the zero-catch decision. Norway,
Japan and the Soviet Union have formally objected to the non-binding
moratorium and continue whaling with self-imposed limits, while Iceland
and South Korea are continuing operations under permits for scientific
research.
But pressure from the majority to obey the ban, spearheaded by the
United States, appeared partly successful. The Soviet Union, faced with
U.S. fishing sanctions last year, announced that it would stop its
whaling temporarily in 1987-88. A Soviet delegate, Yevgeny Charkov,
explained the halt was for "technical reasons," including remodelling
and retraining its whaling fleet.
Japan carries out coastal hunting of Minke whales and is also the
world's biggest importer of whale meat. In its opening statement the
Japanese delegation pleaded for a "fair and balanced solution to the
moratorium issue."
|
| 109.4 | Greenpeace in action | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Thu Jun 12 1986 10:13 | 41 |
| Associated Press Wed 11-JUN-1986 21:22 Norway-Greenpeace
Norwegian Coast Guard Arrests Crew of Greenpeace Ship
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - The Norwegian Coast Guard arrested the 13-man
crew of the Greenpeace ship Moby Dick on Wednesday after it shadowed a
Norwegian ship hunting whales in the North Atlantic, a Greenpeace
spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman, Lies Vedder, said the environmentalist group's ship
had pursued the whaler Svolvaering for about two hours until a Coast
Guard vessel told the crew by radio they had violated Norway's
four-mile territorial limit.
Another group spokesman, Goeran Olenberg, said the Coast Guard then
boarded the ship and ordered it to port in northernmost Norway. He said
the charges against the crew were not immediately revealed, prompting a
protest to the group's lawyer in G�teborg, Sweden. "They accuse us of
having entered Norwegian waters and having putting inflatables in the
sea, but that is no crime. ... We have no obligation to go into
harbor," Olenberg said.
Ms. Vedder said those arrested included Greenpeace members from the
United States, West Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden and
Norway plus a reporter, a photographer and a cameraman.
Capt. �istein H�l, chief of the Norwegian navy's operation center at
Bod�, said the crew of the Moby Dick repeatedly violated Norway's
territorial limit and ignored a Coast Guard order to go to the nearby
port of Vads�. H�l said two inflatables launched from the Moby Dick
circled the Svolvaering, but that the Norwegian vessel was not actively
whaling at the time.
Greenpeace is an international organization that, among other causes,
opposes the hunting of whales. Claiming its right of innocent passage,
the Moby Dick set out last week for the frigid waters off Norway to
prevent the hunting of minke whales, a protected species.
Despite an International Whaling Commission call in 1982 for a
moratorium on commercial whaling from 1986 to 1990, Norway has
announced plans to catch 400 whales this year.
|
| 109.5 | Restrictions tightened | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Jun 16 1986 10:08 | 57 |
| Associated Press Fri 13-JUN-1986 19:51 Whale Conference
IWC Tightens `Scientific' Loophole in Whaling Moratorium
By DICK SODERLUND
Associated Press Writer
MALM�, Sweden (AP) - The International Whaling Commmission recommended
at the end of a five-day meeting Friday that meat from whales caught
under scientific permit should be "primarily for local consumption."
The recommendation was largely aimed at Iceland and South Korea.
Claiming that their whaling is for "scientific purposes" and therefore
not covered by the new IWC moratorium on the hunting of whales, the two
member nations catch hundreds of protected minke whales in the North
Atlantic and North Pacific each year and export the meat to Japan. Most
meat from whales caught under special scientific permits goes to Japan,
a major whaling nation.
The chairman of the international environmentalist organization
Greenpeace, David Mc Taggart, said: "Allowing scientific whaling for
profit has made the moratorium totally worthless and opened another
door for the continuation of commercial whaling. This sell-out to the
whaling interests by some of the so-called conservation-minded
countries has betrayed world opinion that commercial whaling should
end."
Japan, Norway and the Soviet Union have ignored the moratorium that
began this year on commercial whaling. Iceland and South Korea have
continued to catch whales under scientific permit. Environmentalist and
conservationist members of the commission charge that whaling nations
are using "scientific" hunting as a way to skirt the IWC policy.
The conference, attended by government delegations from most of the 40
member nations and observers from 30 environmentalist groups, also
reached consensus on a recommendation to make the traditional pilot
whale hunt in the Faeroe Islands more humane. The Faroes authorities
have announced whale hunting reforms of their own, including
restrictions on the use of harpoons and spears.
The commission also adopted a plan drafted by its scientific committee
for a comprehensive assessment of whale stocks around the world to be
conducted during the four-year whaling moratorium. It was the 38th
annual meeting of the IWC since it was set up in 1946 to regulate the
whaling industry, and it was the first in which no votes were taken.
Sensitive issues the commissioners were unable to settle behind closed
doors were referred to working groups or shelved until the next meeting
in Bournemouth, England in June 1987. Such issues included a Japanese
request for exemption from the moratorium for its coastal whaling, the
continued Japanese sperm whale hunt and Norway's alleged unwillingness
to supply IWC scientists with data on its whaling.
The Swedish commissioner, Sture Irberger, summed up the result of the
IWC meeting: "It's better to get a consensus on a recommendation by
peaceful compromise than to vote through a tougher non-binding
resolution after a confrontation," he said.
|
| 109.6 | Activitists on Faeroe Islands | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Fri Jun 20 1986 11:37 | 39 |
| Associated Press Thu 19-JUN-1986 22:29 Faeroe-Protesters
Police Detain Anti-Whaling Activists on Faeroe Islands
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Police on the Faeroe Islands detained six
people from a Canadian anti-whaling protest vessel Thursday when they
came ashore at Torshavn, capital of the remote Danish territory, police
officials said. Police said they would not comment further on the
matter.
A Faeroese source who spoke on condition of anonymity said four people
from the vessel Sea Shepherd came ashore at Thorshavn in an inflatable
boat despite orders from Faeroese authorities to stay at sea. The four
were escorted to police headquarters, the source said.
Soon afterwards, the source said, a second inflatable was launched from
the protest vessel, and the two people aboard attempted to recover the
first inflatable. The two people resisted arrest and were also taken to
police headquarters, the source added.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said from its offices in
Vancouver, British Columbia, that seven of its members had been
arrested and ordered held without charge. The reason for the
discrepancy in the reports could not be immediately determined.
Starlet Lum, spokeswoman for the group, said the detainees were from
the United States, Canada, Mexico, Sweden and Britain.
According to the source on the islands, the authorities had ordered the
Sea Shepherd to stay outside the semi-autonomous Danish territory's
three-mile limit. The vessel arrived in Torshavn's harbor Thursday to
protest the hunting of pilot whales. The source said the Sea Shepherd
had been told it was unwanted in the islands because it threatened to
break Faeroese laws.
Residents of the islands have long been under attack from
environmentalists for their method of driving passing pilot whales
ashore and killing them. The Faeroe Islands, with a population of about
44,000, are located in the North Atlantic between Scotland and Iceland.
|
| 109.7 | | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Wed Jun 25 1986 09:48 | 54 |
| Associated Press Tue 24-JUN-1986 20:47 Anti-Whaling
Authorities Expel Anti-Whaling Activists from Faeroe Islands
By FRANK POWLEY
Associated Press Writer
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - The skipper and five anti-whaling activists
from the protest vessel Sea Shepherd were expelled Tuesday from the
Faeroe Islands, a remote archipelago in the North Atlantic, a Foreign
Ministry official said. The official, Jens Moeller, said the activists
had been held by police in Torshavn, the Faeroese capital, since last
Thursday. He identified the five activists as Rodney Coronado, an
American; L. McKay, a Canadian; Magnus Alpadie, a Swede; Nicholas
Taylor, a Briton, and Anne Veronica Behn-Eschenburg of Switzerland and
said all were banned from the Faeroes for one year.
Moeller said the American skipper, Paul Watson, was barred from the
islands for three years. The expulsions were taken to prevent illegal
interference with the traditional Faeroes pilot-whale hunt and to
uphold law and order, Moeller said.
The Sea Shepherd, a converted trawler belonging to the Sea Shepherd
environmentalist group, arrived in the Faeroes last week to protest the
whale hunt. The crew, along with two British free-lance journalists,
were detained by police when they came ashore at Torshavn in two
inflatable boats launched from the Sea Shepherd in defiance of orders
from local authorities to stay at sea. Over the weekend the
journalists, identified as Gary Chambers and Gerry Free, were released.
Last summer, Watson and other Sea Shepherd activists in inflatable
boats allegedly attempted to disrupt a hunt but were driven off by
Faeroese whalers. The islanders have long been under attack from
environmentalist for their method of driving passing herds of pilot
whales ashore and slaughtering them on the beach. But the islanders say
the whales are an important source of food for them and contend they
have restricted the use of gaffs and spears in the hunt to make it more
humane. The beached whales are killed by cutting their spinal chords
and major arteries with knives.
The Faeroe Islands, an island chain between Scotland and Iceland, are a
semi-autonomous territory under Danish rule.
In another whaling incident, three rubber boats from the Greenpeace
vessel Moby Dick tried to prevent seven Norwegian whaling vessels from
hunting minke whales in Norwegian territorial waters, the Norwegian
news agency NTB reported. It said Norwegian coast guardsmen ordered the
Moby Dick into international waters but that while at sea, the rubber
boats tied themselves to a harpoon rope of one whaling vessel.
On June 11, the Moby Dick was seized and escorted into the port town of
Vard�. Skipper Jonathan Castle was fined $1,330 for territorial water
violations. He has refused to pay and was ordered to appear in local
court next August.
|
| 109.8 | | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Sun Jul 13 1986 08:40 | 54 |
| Associated Press Sat 12-JUL-1986 18:02 Sea Shepherd
Environmentalists Battle Faeroe Islands Police
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Environmental activists aboard the Sea
Shepherd trawler clashed with Faeroe Islands police Saturday in the
North Atlantic, police and a spokesman for the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society reported. They gave differing versions of the
incident, which occurred off the southernmost of the Faeroe Islands.
Police in the capital of Thorshavn told The Associated Press by
telephone that the Sea Shepherd had sailed inside the Faeroe Islands'
three-mile territorial limit in defiance of orders from officials to
stay at sea. The activists fired pistols at officers who attempted to
board the Sea Shepherd from an inflatable boat launched from a coast
guard ship, and hacked at the boat with axes, said a police spokesman
who declined to give his name. He said eight officers tried to subdue
the environmentalists with tear gas, but the activists donned gas
masks. No one was injured during the skirmish, he added.
Faeroese Broadcasting, the local radio station, said there were about a
dozen activists aboard the Sea Seapherd and the vessel sailed south out
of Faeroese waters early Saturday following the clash.
In Los Angeles, Peter Wallerstein, a director of the conservation
society, disputed the police version of the incident in a telephone
interview with AP. "At 3 a.m., while Sea Shepherd was in international
waters, a 200-foot fishing vessel converted into a gunship and three
inflatable boats with four commandos in each boat attacked the Sea
Shepherd." Wallerstein said.
"The first shot was from a Faroese policeman in one of the inflatables
directly at Sea Shepherd Capt. Paul Watson, missing him by inches," he
said. "There are bullet holes and tear gas cannister impacts all over
the Sea Shepherd. "The Faroese authorities are lying, and have been
lying throughout this campaign. There has also been a cover-up by the
Danish government," Wallerstein said.
The Faeroe Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the North Atlantic
between Scotland and Iceland, are a semiautonomous territory under the
Danish crown with a population of about 44,000.
The environmentalists arrived in the Faeroes last month to protest the
islanders' annual pilot whale hunt. They claim the hunt is a threat to
the pilot whale stock and is inhumane. Police detained several people
from the Sea Shepherd in the port of Thorshavn last month following a
confrontation with local residents.
The islanders have been criticized by environmentalists for their
traditional killing method of driving whales ashore and slaughtering
them on the beaches. Wallerstin said the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society has offices in Britain; Vancouver, British Columbia, and
Venice, Calif. The Sea Shepherd is a converted fishing trawler.
|
| 109.9 | Iceland - temporary stoppage | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Jul 28 1986 09:47 | 55 |
| Associated Press Fri 25-JUL-1986 22:23 US-Iceland
Iceland Halts Whaling in Conservation Dispute With US
By GENE KRAMER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Iceland will halt whaling for 3 1/2 weeks in hopes of
reopening talks with the United States on whale conservation and
staving off a threatened U.S. embargo against its fish products,
Icelandic officials said Friday. The action was confirmed by officials
in both Washington and Reykjavik.
Iceland's Prime Minister Steingrimur Hermannsson told reporters of his
North Atlantic island nation the move was intended to facilitate
negotiations with the United States on the whaling dispute and to avert
the potential embargo.
Kristjan Loftsson, director of Iceland's only whaling station, said his
firm responded to a government request by advancing the start of a
summer holiday from Aug. 10 to next Sunday. He said it planned to
resume whaling Sunday Aug. 20.
At the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, spokesman
A. Joseph La Covey and other officials said the action "might well"
change plans for the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to decide next Monday
whether Iceland has been adhering to conservation standards set by the
International Whaling Commission.
Under U.S. laws, the government monitors all foreign whaling. When it
determines that conservation has been undermined, the commerce
secretary must recommend that the president either embargo the
offending country's fish products or curtail its right to fish off U.S.
shores.
Iceland hopes its suspension of whaling "will postpone the issuing of a
certificate to the president to put pressure on Iceland" and bring new
talks, said Helgi Agustsson, Icelandic Embassy minister-counselor in
Washington. A delegation led by Iceland's fisheries minister met here
in early July on the main issue of the dispute - an Icelandic catch of
whales for research purposes.
At its annual meeting in Stockholm, the IWC decided meat produced by
authorized research whaling should be "primarily for local
consumption." Iceland's current research program provides for catching
120 whales this year but the nation can consume only 10 percent of
their meat and and other products, Agustsson said.
The IWC decision on "primarily for local consumption" was adopted
unanimously but Iceland and the United States differ on their
interpretations of "primarily," said Dean Swanson, of the American IWC
delegation.
At Iceland's Hvalur whaling station, Loftsson said 76 of the 120
research whales authorized for the year have already been caught.
|
| 109.10 | Carrier met by Norwegians | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Sep 01 1986 09:02 | 30 |
| Associated Press Fri 29-AUG-1986 21:17 Norway-Nimitz
Carrier Nimitz Met By Protesting Norwegian Whalers
OSLO, Norway (AP) - The U.S. aircraft carrier Nimitz was met by
protesting whalers aboard small boats Friday as it sailed off the
northern Norwegian archipelago of Lofoton, Norwegian radio reported.
National radio NRK said the 90,000-ton carrier was approached by 17
boats manned by whalers and relatives protesting U.S. pressure on
Norway to stop the killing of minke whales.
"We hope our message will reach the American government," the NTB news
agency quoted protest leader Steinar Bastesen as saying after the
whaling boats met the carrier and then withdrew. Bastesen had said
earlier that the action was directed again "environmental protection
hysteria." He told the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet before the protest,
"Other people fight for higher pay; we fight for being allowed to keep
our work."
In March, Norwegian authorities announced a provisional halt in the
commercial catching of minke whales after the 1987 season. Whaling
organizations blamed pressure from some foreign countries, including
the United States, and from environmental groups, for the decision.
The Nimitz is one of many NATO vessels taking part in Northern Wedding,
a maritime and amphibious exercise that began Friday in the
northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel, the Irish Sea, the
North Sea and approaches to the Baltic Sea. It is to continue until
Sept. 19 and is to practice the reinforcement of units of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization.
|
| 109.11 | Conservationists sink two whaling boats | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Nov 10 1986 09:26 | 27 |
| Associated Press Sun 09-NOV-1986 18:32 Iceland-Boats
U.S. Group Claims Responsibility for Sinking Two Whaling Boats
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Saboteurs opened the bottom valves on two
Icelandic whaling boats early Sunday, sinking the vessels in Reykjavik
harbor, police reported.
The U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society claimed responsibility
for the attacks. Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson, in an interview
broadcast on Icelandic state radio and television, said a team from his
organization based in Los Angeles sank the boats because, "The
Icelanders were hunting whales illegally."
No injuries were reported in the attacks, which were believed to have
occurred about 2 a.m. when no crew members were aboard. A guard on a
nearby boat told police that at about 5 a.m. he noticed the two vessels
taking on water but he was unable to save them.
Iceland agreed to abide by an International Whaling Commission decision
to cease whaling from 1986 until 1990. Although its commercial whaling
stopped, the government permits the Hvalur Whaling Co. to carry out
what is called scientific whaling in cooperation with the National
Oceanic Research Institute.
Under a plan to gain information on the diminishing numbers of the
great sea mammals, the company is permitted to catch 200 whales.
|
| 109.12 | Stop the whaling, but ....... | COP01::STS | Outlaw | Tue Nov 11 1986 06:29 | 10 |
| using methods like this makes them just as bad as the french when
they used violence to stop the Green Peace anti-nuclear protest
- eventhough fortunately nobody was hurt in this incident.
The people who allegedly sank the boats in Iceland are also wanted
by the Danish authorities for ramming a Police Patrol Boat off the
coast of the Faroe Islands.
Let us hope that this doesn't hurt the rest of the campaign too
much
|
| 109.13 | More destruction | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Tue Nov 11 1986 08:45 | 91 |
| Associated Press Mon 10-NOV-1986 12:15 Iceland-Whaling Ships
Whaling Station Wrecked, Environmental Group Claims Responsibility
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Saboteurs wrecked Iceland's only plant where
whale byproducts are processed in an attack claimed today by the North
American environmental group which says it also scuttled two Icelandic
whaling boats. The attack on the whaling station, about 50 miles north
of Reykjavik, was discovered this morning when employees arrived for
work. The plant's computer system and the machinery used to process
whale byproducts were destroyed.
Helgi Jonsson, spokesman for Hvalur Whaling Co., the plant's owner,
said it appeared saboteurs used sledge hammers on the plant, which
processes whale oil and bone meal. Whale meat for human consumption is
handled at a plant in Reykjavik.
Members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society claimed responsiblity
for damaging the plant. Joanna Forwell, a spokeswoman for the group in
Vancouver, British Columbia, said in a telephone interview that the
same people who opened the bottom valves on the whaling boats, Hvalur 6
and Hvalur 7, early Sunday in Reykjavik harbor had earlier attacked the
plant.
No crew members were aboard the ships, and no injuries were reported in
the sinkings and the plant attack. No one was at the plant between
Sunday and this morning.
Sea Shepherd's leader, Paul Watson, said in interviews with Icelandic
state radio and television that a team from his organization sank the
430-ton boats because "the Icelanders were hunting whales illegally."
Environmentalists accuse the Icelandic government of using scientific
pretenses as a cover for commercial whaling. "They are trying to say
they are killing whales for research, but the whale meat is being sold
to Japan. They are prostituting science," Watson, also in Vancouver,
told The Associated Press.
Iceland agreed to abide by an International Whaling Commission decision
to cease whaling from 1986 to 1990. Although commercial whaling
stopped, the government permits Hvalur to carry out scientific whaling
in cooperation with the National Oceanic Research Institute. The
company, which has two other boats, is allowed to catch 200 whales a
year under a plan to document the number of whales.
Last August, Icelandic and U.S. officials reached a compromise
providing that half the meat resulting from the whaling be consumed by
Icelanders. In the past, 90 percent of the meat was sold abroad, nearly
all of it to Japan.
The United States monitors foreign whaling. If it determines that
efforts to conserve the whales have been undermined, the secretary of
commerce is required by law to recommend that the president either
embargo the offending country's fish products or curtail its right to
fish in U.S. territorial waters.
Iceland maintains that as a fishing nation it must conduct extensive
research on how whales affect fish population and that it can finance
its research only through the sale of whale meat.
Watson, 36, said the group's action in Iceland was delayed because of
the Oct. 11-12 meeting in Reykjavik between Soviet leader Mikhail S.
Gorbachev and President Reagan. After the superpower summit, "at the
first opportunity, when they found the ships unmanned, they scuttled
them," he said.
Watson said a Sea Shepherd team went to Iceland several days ago and
patrolled the harbor, watching for an opportunity to sink the vessels.
"As we don't want to cause bodily harm we therefore prepared the act
very carefully," he said. "Our team was given instructions not to cause
injuries and therefore explosives were out of the question."
A guard on a nearby boat noticed the two 150-foot-vessels taking on
water at about 5 a.m., but attempts by the authorities to save them
proved futile.
Watson would not specify how many people took part in the operation and
said the team had left Iceland. The boats went down in 45 feet of
water, he said, and "Our supporters said a lot of young Icelanders were
cheering when they saw the ships sunk in the water."
The Sea Shepherd group was founded by Watson in 1977 when he was
expelled from the Greenpeace environmental group based in Vancouver. It
now has offices in Vancouver and Los Angeles. No reason was given for
the expulsion from Greenpeace.
The team has a history of harassing groups hunting whales, seals and
dolphins. In 1980, the crew of the 200-foot Sea Shepherd boat claimed
responsibility for sinking two whaling ships in Vigo, Spain, with
magnetic mines. No one was injured.
|
| 109.14 | Iceland seeks extradition of perpetrators | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Tue Nov 11 1986 08:53 | 89 |
| Associated Press Mon 10-NOV-1986 18:27 Iceland-Whales
Iceland Will Seek to Prosecute Anti-Whaling Protesters
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - The government said Monday it suspects an
American and a Briton of sinking half its whaling fleet in Reykjavik
harbor and sabotaging Iceland's only whaling station, and will seek
their extradition.
Prime Minister Steingrimur Hermannsson, speaking on radio and
television, said Iceland was trying to find out the whereabouts of the
two men and order their arrest. He also criticized Icelandic police for
not raising the alarm soon enough after the attacks Sunday to prevent
their escape.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a North American anti-whaling
group, has claimed responsibility for scuttling the two 430-ton vessels
by pulling its bottom valves and letting them sink in 45 feet of water.
The militant environmentalist group also claimed it used acid and
sledgehammers to destroy equipment in the remote Hvalur Whaling Co.
station where whale byproducts are processed, all in the aim of saving
whale's lives. No one was injured in either attack, which local
officials estimated caused $2 million damage.
Justice Ministry secretary Thorstein Geirsson identified the suspects
as Rodney Coronado of the United States and David Howard of Britain.
Geirsson said the two left Iceland early Sunday on an Icelandair flight
for Luxembourg as the whaling boats were sinking. Their hometowns were
not given.
In Britain, Sea Shepherd spokeswoman Sarah Hambley said in a telephone
interview she knew nothing of Coronado or Howard. Asked if anyone from
Britain participated in the raid, she replied, "I cannot give out
information like that."
Icelandic police spokesman Helgi Danielsson said police were called to
Reykjavik harbor about 7 a.m. Sunday, or the same time as the plane was
leaving for Europe. "At that time we had no evidence which justified
stopping airliners taking off," Danielsson said.
Hermannsson called an emergency Cabinet meeting for Tuesday morning and
requested a detailed report on the sabotage. The Sea Shepherd group has
accused Iceland of conducting illegal commercial whaling in the guise
of scientific research. Although Iceland abides by the International
Whaling Commission's decision to halt commercial whaling until 1990,
the North Atlantic island permits killing 200 whales a year for
research.
Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said in Vancouver, British Columbia,
that members of the organization infiltrated Iceland's whaling industry
in August with instructions to act when there was no threat to human
life. Watson, a Canadian, said the action was delayed by the
U.S.-Soviet summit in Reykjavik last month. After that, "at the first
opportunity, when they found the ships unmanned, they scuttled them,"
he said.
Magnus Olafsson, foreman of the whaling station on Hvalfjoredur fjord,
50 miles north of the Icelandic capital, said the factory, now
inoperable, looked like it was hit by an air raid. Byproducts processed
at the plant included whale oil and bone meal.
Olafsson said the wreckers used sledgehammers "to destroy everything in
sight" in the main factory building and two smaller buildings housing
computers and other control equipment. He said they used cyanic acid
"to inflict as heavy damage as possible."
Attorney General Hallvardur Einarsson said Iceland would seek to
extradite any foreigners involved in the sabotage. "We have found out
that people with these names are connected to Paul Watson and his
organization and we are cross-checking our records to try to establish
if they might have been involved," said one police spokesman.
Damage at the whaling station, which is not staffed on weekends, was
not discovered until Monday morning when employees arrived for work.
The Hvalur company is allowed to catch 200 whales a year under a plan
to gather scientific information on the diminishing numbers of whales.
Watson said the saboteurs could have scuttled the two other boats on
Sunday, but watchmen were aboard.
The Sea Shepherd group was founded by Watson in 1977 when he was
expelled from the Greenpeace environmental group. No reason was given
for the expulsion. Greenpeace works actively for whale conservation,
sometimes sailing between whalers and their quarry, but Sea Shepherd
generally takes stronger action. It, for example, has claimed
responsibility for sinking two whaling ships with magnetic mines in
Vigo, Spain. There were no injuries in the 1982 incident. Sea Shepherd
has offices in Vancouver; Los Angeles; Virginia; Sweden; Australia;
Britain; and Dublin, Ireland.
|
| 109.15 | Activists are terrorists | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Wed Nov 12 1986 10:35 | 81 |
| Associated Press Tue 11-NOV-1986 20:31 Iceland-Whaling
Whaling Saboteurs Are Terrorists, Iceland Says
By AGUST ASGEIRSSON
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Iceland regards the environmental activists
who sabotaged the country's whaling industry as terrorists and will try
to extradite them for prosecution, the prime minister said Tuesday.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an international group that
opposes whaling, claimed responsibility for the sinking of two of
Iceland's four whaling vessels in Reykjavik harbor early Sunday and for
wrecking an isolated station where whale byproducts are processed.
Icelandic authorities named two people it said were Sea Shepherd
members, Rodney Coronado of Morgan Hill, Calif., and David Howard of
Britain, and said they were suspects in the sabotage. Later Tuesday,
police spokesman Thorir Oddsson said officers had stopped Coronado and
Howard for a breath-alcohol test as the two drove to Keflavik Airport
on Sunday, minutes after the sabotage was discovered. But they were
allowed to go after they passed the test, he said.
Prime Minister Steingrimur Hermannsson said Tuesday night on television
that police did not think Coronado and Howard were involved in the
attack on the whaling station because that was done by amateurs. Also,
Immigration Service official Arni Sigurjonsson said Coronado and Howard
had been questioned Oct. 15 when they entered Iceland because of
unspecified "strange behavior." He said they also had been questioned
another time about working without a permit, but gave no details.
Sea Shepherd claimed its action will save whales' lives, but this
small, fishing-dependent country fumed with outrage at the sabotage.
Hermannsson called an emergency Cabinet meeting, and it was followed by
a special debate in the Althing, Iceland's parliament. "The saboteurs
are regarded by the Icelandic government as terrorists and all efforts
will be made to get the people that are responsible prosecuted for this
inhuman act," Hermannsson said. He said the Cabinet decided to seek
extradition of the two identified Sea Shepherd members, who were
believed to have flown to Luxembourg on Sunday while the two 430-ton
whaling vessels slowly sank.
In Britain, Sea Shepherd spokeswoman Sarah Hambley told The Associated
Press by telephone from Plymouth that in any legal case "it would be up
to Iceland to convince the world they're not whaling illegally." Asked
where Coronado and Howard were, she replied, "I will not comment on the
whereabouts of any of our field agents."
The International Whaling Commission has called for a halt to
commercial whaling. Iceland says it takes only a small number of whales
for scientific research and denies its whaling is illegal under the
commission's rules.
The anti-whaling raid apparently was prepared soon after the Oct. 11-12
Reykjavik superpower summit. Icelandic media says it has discovered
places where the two Sea Shepherd members stayed after their arrival in
mid-October, including a Salvation Army hostel. The hostel record
showed Coronado gave an address in Morgan Hill, Calif., and his age as
20, and Howard gave an address in Plymouth, England, and gave his age
as 21.
Receptionist Ingibjorg Jonsdottir said they left the hostel Saturday,
before the two boats were sunk. "I remember well when they left," Ms.
Jonsdottir said. "They had some rucksacks or bags on their backs.
Howard was bearded and Coronado clean-shaven. They left with a broad
smile on their faces."
A guest at the hostel, Torbjorn Madelind of Sweden, said the two never
mentioned whales. "The only thing I remember is that they brought with
them big boots, but that is not enough to sink boats," Madelind said.
Police questioned several local people, including some Sea Shepherd
sympathizers, but made no arrests, spokesman Helgi Danielsson said. He
said police had not ruled out the possibility Icelanders were involved
in the sabotage, which caused no injuries but resulted in damage
estimated at about $2 million by the Hvalur whaling company.
Iceland has extradition treaties with the United States and Britain but
not with Canada, the base of Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson, the
Foreign Ministry said.
|
| 109.16 | Warrants issued | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Thu Nov 13 1986 12:38 | 40 |
| Associated Press Thu 13-NOV-1986 09:15 Iceland-Whaling
Iceland Issues Arrest Warrants In Sinking Of Whaling Ships
By AGUST ASGEIRSSON
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Iceland has issued arrest warrants for two
members of an anti-whaling group suspected of sinking two whaling ships
and damaging a whale byproducts processing plant. Named in the
warrants, issued Wednesday, were American Rodney Coronado and Briton
David Howard. They are members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society, an international anti-whaling group that claimed
responsibility for the attacks that sank two of Iceland's four whaling
vessels Sunday and damaged a plant where whale byproducts are
processed. There were no injuries in either incident.
"We have asked Interpol, the international police, to arrest the two
suspects ... and are also preparing to ask for their extradition,"
said Thorsteinn Geirsson, permanent secretary of the Justice Ministry.
If convicted in Iceland, the suspects each face up to two years in
prison, Geirsson said.
Records at a hostel where the two men stayed showed Coronado said he
was from Morgan Hill, Calif., and 20 years old. Howard said he was from
Plymouth, England, and gave his age as 21.
Reykjavik police spokesman Helgi Danielsson said the name David Howard
probably was an alias, but did not say what the suspect's correct name
was believed to be. Danielsson said the suspect was almost certainly
not, as some people thought, Nicholas Taylor, a Sea Shepherd member
allegedly involved along with Coronado in actions against whalers this
year in the Faroe Islands, a group of Danish islands between Iceland
and Britain's Shetland Islands.
Suni Vinther, the Faroes' police chief, told Icelandic radio that this
year and last year, the Faroese sent detailed information on Coronado,
Taylor and other Sea Shepherd activists to Iceland via Interpol. But
Arni Sigurjonsson, Iceland's chief of immigration, and Thorir Oddsson,
chief of the investigative police, told the newspaper Morgunbladid that
their departments never received any of the material.
|
| 109.17 | Pseudonym and a Swedish connection | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Fri Nov 14 1986 10:02 | 44 |
| Associated Press Thu 13-NOV-1986 18:46 Iceland-Whaling
British Suspect in Iceland Sabotage Gave False Name
By AGUST ASGEIRSSON
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - A Briton suspected in the sabotage of two
Icelandic whaling ships gave a false name when he stayed in the
country, police said Thursday. Authorities are also investigating the
possible involvement of a Swedish woman, Christina Madeling, in the
attacks, the newspaper Helgarposturinn reported. An American is also
sought. Police spokeswoman Helgi Danielsson said the Briton's real name
is David Howit and he was believed to be back in Britain.
On Wednesday, Iceland said it had issued arrest warrants through
Interpol, the international police agency, for David Howard, 21, of
Plymouth, England, and Rodney Coronado, 20, of Morgan Hill, Calif. Ms.
Danielsson said that Howit gave the name Howard in registering at the
Salvation Army guest house in Reykjavik.
Both men are members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an
international anti-whaling group. It has claimed responsibility for
sinking two of Iceland's four whaling vessels in Reykjavik harbor early
Sunday and for wrecking a whaling station where whale byproducts are
processed. There were no injuries, but damage was estimated at $2
million.
Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said Thursday in an interview with
Iceland Radio that a man named Howit was a member of the society.
Watson said Howit was in the crew of the society's vessel, Sea
Shepherd, which harassed whalers earlier this year in the Danish Faroe
Islands between Iceland and Britain's Shetland Islands.
The society said earlier that Coronado arrived Wednesday in New York.
Police sources in Iceland said Ms. Madeling, 21, also stayed at the
Salvation Army hostel and had said she intended to stay until
Christmas. But she joined Coronado and Howit on an Icelandic Airlines
flight to Luxembourg immediately after the sabotage, the sources said.
Work to raise the two vessels began Thursday. Kristjan Loftsson,
manager and main owner of the Hvalur Whaling Co. that owns the vessels
and the damaged processing station, said the full damage will be known
after the ships are afloat.
|
| 109.18 | Effort to raise whaling ship fails | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Tue Nov 18 1986 11:00 | 35 |
| Associated Press Mon 17-NOV-1986 17:39 Iceland-Whaling
Efforts to Refloat Scuttled Whaling Ships Fail
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Pump failure thwarted three tries to refloat
two Icelandic whaling ships scuttled in Reykjavik harbor by
anti-whaling activists, the director of the salvage operation said
Monday.
Kristbjorn Thorarinsson, owner of Kofunarstodin salvage company, said
he would keep trying. "We didn't put enough pumps the first time and
then they kept breaking down," he explained to reporters. "We still
hope to make a reasonable profit of it."
Kofunarstodin offered the raise the scuttled ships for $30,000. The
vessels sank about one yard into the sandy harbor floor with their
masts still above water. Kristjan Loftsson, owner of Hvalur whaling
company, said the scuttled ships were insured for $4 million each.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an international group with
followers in Canada, the United States and several other countries,
says it sank half of Iceland's four-ship whaling fleet Nov. 9. The Sea
Shepherds claim that Iceland kills whales illegally. The Icelandic
government rejects the charge and says it takes a small number of
whales for research without breaking an international moratorium on
commercial whaling.
The activists also wrecked an unguarded whaling station in Hvalfjordur,
50 miles north of Iceland's capital, damaging processing equipment for
whale byproducts like oil.
Iceland has issued arrest warrants for an American and a Briton and has
asked Interpol to arrest the two men in connection with the attacks.
The two were identified here as Rodney Coronado, 20, of Morgan Hill.,
Calif., and David Howard, 21, of Plymouth, England.
|
| 109.19 | Refloated | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Thu Nov 20 1986 09:14 | 31 |
| Associated Press Wed 19-NOV-1986 10:46 Iceland-Whaling
Scuttled Whaling Boats Refloated
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Salvagers have raised and refloated the two
whaling ships scuttled in Reykjavik harbor by environmental activists.
"The boats popped up from the sandy harbor floor like a cork,"
Kristbjorn Thorarinsson, owner of the salvage company which contracted
the job, said Tuesday.
The sabotage caused $2 million in damage, the Hvalur Whaling Co. said.
The 430-ton vessels, insured for $4 million each, were coated with
heavy oil residues from leaks sprung in the scuttling.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an international anti-whaling
group, claimed responsibility for the Nov. 9 sabotage and for wrecking
an unguarded whale processing station 50 miles north of Reykjavik.
Police said Tuesday they had not determined whether the boats were sunk
by two suspects, identified in Iceland as Rodney Coronado, 20, of
Morgan Hill, Calif., and David Howit, 21, of Plymouth, England. Iceland
has issued arrest warrants for both men. "It is not enough for us that
some people appear on television somewhere abroad and claim
responsibility," said police spokesman Thorir Oddsson. "We are trying
to establish if Coronado and Howit were linked with the sabotage. So
far we have no proof of that."
The Sea Shepherds accuse Iceland of commercial whaling in the guise of
scientific research. The government says it stopped commercial whaling
this year under a 4-year international moratorium but permits the
Hlavur Whaling Co. to catch 200 whales a year for research.
|
| 109.20 | Group wants total ban on Faroese hunt | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Tue Jun 23 1987 10:05 | 23 |
| *NI1**** Copyright 1986 Agence France Presse SISCOM IP
Ecologists protest "unlimited" whaling in Faeroes
LONDON, June 21 (AFP) - Whalers in the Faroe Islands have killed some
2,000 whales and hundreds of dolphins since 1986, defying an
International Whaling Commission (IWC) agreement, a British ecological
group charged here Sunday.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) made the charge in a
report published on the eve of the IWC's annual meeting in Britain. It
said the IWC would call for a complete ban on whaling in the north
Atlantic archipelago, which is a self-governing region of Denmark.
Authorities in the Faroes agreed to accept the limits on whaling
recommended by the IWC last year, but refused to enforce the reduction,
a EIA spokesman said. "As the Faroese refuse to discuss the issue and
state that they will allow continued unlimited kills, the only answer
is for a total ban on the Faroese whale hunt," the spokesman said.
Received: 21-JUN-1987 14:24
|
| 109.21 | The Icelandic precedent | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Jun 29 1987 11:02 | 77 |
| ANI23*** Copyright 1986 The Associated Press SISCOM IP
Whalers Facing Tough Times
BOURNEMOUTH, England (AP). Even Iceland, which makes its living from
the sea and is one of the few remaining whale-hunting nations, now has
a save-the-whale movement. "Our Whale Friends Society is one month old
and we have come here to protest at our government's policy of killing
whales," said Magnus Skarphedinsson at an anti-whaling street vigil in
the resort of Bournemouth.
The Icelander, accompanied by fellow-student Bjorn Hroarsson and record
shop manager Eyrun Osk Jensdottir, said with a little help from the
society they each paid $400 for round-trip air tickets from Reykjavik
to London. Their banner, hung on a railing facing the hotel where the
International Whaling Commission held its annual meeting, spelled out
the current issue in the clash between those who hunt whales and those
who want to save them. "Down with scientific hunting," the banner said.
For five days ending Friday, government delegations from Japan,
Iceland, Norway and South Korea argued before 24 other nations that
they be allowed to go on killing whales in the interests of determining
the growth and size of whale populations in the world's oceans. Their
opponents, headed by the United States, described the argument as a
subterfuge for continuing commercial whaling, mainly to supply the
world's major whalemeat market of Japan.
When the whalers lost the argument against a U.S. proposal to strictly
monitor future research, Japan's whaling commissioner, Tatsuo Saito,
said he would resign his post. Saito complained that the commission had
become "too conservationist" and that a group of 16 countries
constantly voted against Japan. Saito said his government gave more
than $4 million to set up a whaling scientific research institute to
supply data to the commission over the next 12 years, but his plea got
nowhere.
Members of the 57 save-the-whale groups with observer status at the
meeting called the anti-scientific whaling development crucial in the
struggle. The whalers "should now recognize the game is up," said David
McTaggart, chairman of Greenpeace International. "Both world opinion
and the commission itself condemn the continuation of whaling in the
name of science," he said.
In the early days of whale conservation, the commission acted like a
whaling nations' club and more than 60,000 whales a year were killed in
the 1960s. The anti-whaling pressure is now so intense that in
Bournemouth the whaling nations pledged to take 1,155 whales this year
and a total of 11,340 over the next 12 years, 10,500 of them by Japan.
"But if the Japanese and others go on with their scientific whaling, I
can see the United States taking sanctions against their trade. If that
happens, it could be the end of whaling," said David Day, a Canadian
who attended the conference.
Day's book detailing conservationist efforts, "The Whale War," was
published in London during the meeting. Day, 39, from Vancouver, is a
poet and a former lumberjack. Explaining why the whale has become so
important to protection campaigners, Day said in his book: "It is
emblematic of the fate of all species on Earth. The battle line has
been drawn here.
"If this amazing animal, the largest ever to exist on the planet,
cannot be saved from the ruthless exploitation of a handful of men,
what chance of survival have other species?"
The Japanese, however, said their needs and traditions were ignored
when the commission in 1982 voted to ban all commercial whaling in 1986
to allow an assessment of whale stocks, and review the situation in
1990. About 6,300 whales were killed last season.
The Soviet Union said it now has stopped whaling. Japan and Norway are
whaling under objection to the moratorium, but say they will stop by
next April. Iceland and South Korea say they are whaling for science.
Japan and Norway are expected to carry on whaling, but this time under
the scientific precedent set by Iceland and South Korea.
Received: 29-JUN-1987 06:44
|
| 109.22 | Greenpeace campaign takes toll | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Fri Dec 30 1988 14:15 | 53 |
| <<< TOWNS::SYS$SYSDEVICE:[NOTES$LIBRARY]ENVIRONMENTAL_ISSUES.NOTE;1 >>>
-< Current topics concerning the natural environment >-
================================================================================
Note 67.0 Icelandic whaling nearing an end?? No replies
CSMADM::SCHWABE 46 lines 30-DEC-1988 08:43
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This information is from the latest GREENPEACE magazine...
The Iceland fishing industry has recently been handed some heavy
financial blows due in part to an ongoing campaign by GREENPEACE to
force the Iceland government to stop the hunting of whales by that
nation. The campaign has centered on getting various restaurant chains
to boycott the purchase of fish products from Iceland and force the
Icelandic Parliament to stop whaling in that country..
The Jerrico corporation (owner of Long John Silvers restaurant)
recently cancelled a $9 million contract for frozen cod from the Samband
corporation in Iceland. Also, the Tenglemann supermarket chain in
Germany cancelled a $3 million contract for Icelandic shrimp and
herring, and another major contract was cancelled by Nordsee, Germany's
largest fish company. These actions were in protest of Icelands whaling
industry.
The $12 million loss to the fishing industry prompted talk in
Icelands parliament which is now discussing two resolutions that would
end whaling in Iceland for at least three years.
In related actions, many New England school districts are cancelling
Icelandic fish contracts. A GREENPEACE campaigner convinced the Boston
School committee to swear off $250,000 worth of Icelandic fish.
Although Burger King recently announced very limited cut backs in
their purchases of Icelandic fish (ironically for the "Whaler" sandwich
I think), GREENPEACE is planning renewed demonstrations at that
restaurant and also at Wendy's. Due to Jerrico's decision, GREENPEACE
demonstrations at all Long John Silver restaurants have been suspended.
If you wish to send a short letter of thanks to Jerrico for their
decsion to stop buying Icelandic fish, the address is:
Mr. John Tobe, President
Jerrico Corporation
101 Jerrico Drive
Lexington, Kentucky 40579
The next GREENPEACE demonstrations at Burger King and Wendy's are
scheduled for Saturday, March 25, 1989. If you are interested in
organizing a demonstration in your area write GREENPEACE for a free
"Icelandic Whaling Demonstration Kit" from:
Greenpeace Iceland Boycott
1436 U street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
I'll post the locations of the demonstration here as soon as
GREENPEACE releases them in the next issue of their publication.
|
| 109.23 | ...from an icelandic view point | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Thu Aug 10 1989 14:17 | 231 |
| Group soc.culture.nordic
article 844
From: [email protected] (Magnus M Halldorsson)
Subject: Re: Whaling
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Ok, before I get my act together and write that essay, let me first
answer some of the common concerns (and the occasional
misunderstandings) that have been posted recently.
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (a.e.mossberg) writes:
> As I understand it, Iceland continued to hunt *large* numbers of
> whales, ostensibly for scientific research, which then ended up on
> the market as whale meat. This is not something I have followed closely.
> How do you see the situation?
The "large" number is 68 fin whales and 10 sei whales a year. For
comparison, in the several decades before 230 whales were caught in the
average year, without any apparent detriment to the stock. The
estimates for fin whales in the N-Atlantic were around 6-7000, but
after the results from the N-Atlantic Sighting Survey in 1987, a
multinational operation and the most comprehensive survey of whales
ever conducted, that number was raised to 11000.
In the IWC Convention it is very clearly stated, that all whales landed
under special permits are to be fully utilized. Expecting the meat to
be thrown away is not only absurd, but disgusting. Let me add that the
industry was also strictly controlled so that all profits made by the
catch process were channeled into research (paying for only part of
it).
********************
(Jonas Flygare writes:)
> I am surprised the japanese and icelandic
< fishermen/governments are so stubborn, because (and this may be the
< medias fault, but that is another question altogether) if you are
< fishing for food, the last thing you would want is that the source of
< food runs out, right?
You're quite right. We are a lot more concerned than you'd think. We
depend on the ocean, and the previous downfalls of certain fish stocks,
most notably the herring in 1969, has made us quite conservative in
catch estimates. Now try to tell Greenpeace that.
< And in this case I would be deeply worried unless
< someone could show beyond doubt that "there is no danger of the
< XYZ-whale dying out due to too much whaling".
I refer you to the recently published results of the NASS87 sightings
survey. With the recent results coming in from Norway, the stock size
turned out to be almost twice what was previously estimated. Another
example are the expected half a million or so minke whales around the
Antarctic, and can safely sustain a 5000-15000 yearly catch (ref [1]).
It is of course always possible to overdo things, but there certainly
are quite scientific methods of estimating a catch that has no chances
of endangering a stock. I can give you some references on this if
you're interested.
Ask almost any knowledgable scientist if there are whale stocks that
are in no danger of extinction. The answer will be yes, only few stocks
are, and they haven't been hunted for years. Believe me, the issue is
not whether we can hunt certains whales without endangering them - that
answer is known; the issue is can we do it at all.
***************************
(Dave Walden writes:)
> Likewise, I find it hard to condemn killing to provide a commercial
> commodity.
That's all we ask for.
> What does bother me is killing off a species.
If those were the only concerns, I wouldn't be making this posting.
> Similarly, some whales are common, and I have no quarrel with their
> "harvesting". But some whales are disappearing from this planet.
> They, I feel, should be defended.
I agree. (That is there may be some that are in danger, but I don't
know for sure. They certainly should be defended).
****************
( Mikko Katajam{ki writes:)
< [Whales suffer when killed]
Such is life, I'm afraid. Many animals get eaten alive by other
animals. Nature is rough. We can only try do our best to make it as
quick as possible.
< How many times per week do a people eat whale meat?
< What other meat (animals, fish) have you on market?
< Are they more expencive than whale meat?
These questions are really irrelevant.
< Is it absolutely necessary to have whale meat?
< Could it cause severe economical problems if stop exploiting whales?
I believe it is absolutely necessary to hunt whales. (How about that
for a flamable phrase...) The importance of whaling is not so much in
what they bring in, but in keeping the ecology in balance. It is
important to give each species living space, which also means saving it
from its predators, and supplying enough food. If, after centuries of
hunting, whales will be allowed to multiply without control, the effect
on its habitat will be enormous. Iceland is a nation that stands and
falls with its oceans and fishing grounds. The potential effects of
overpopulation of whales are serious and real; letting it happen is
equivalent of giving ourselves up for international welfare.
< Could there be any 'unmoral' features in the whale business.
Office intellectuals will continue to try to save the world this way,
I'm afraid, on "moral" grounds, watch my words.
***************
(Bill Wolfe writes:)
< From article <[email protected]>, by [email protected] (David Walden):
< > killing to provide food for sustenance cannot be a moral issue.
< > What this opens up is eating monkeys, dogs, cats, horses, porpoises, ...
<
< Gee, Dave, why not people???
Ok folks, now don't tell me there aren't people who equate whaling with
a homocide!
< Personally, I prefer to refrain from killing members of a demonstrably
< intelligent species,
Please inform me where it has been demonstrated that whales have a high
level of intelligence. It is indeed quite common to see claims like
this made as an argument against whaling; what is uncommon, and to my
and others knowledge (see ref [1]) nonexistent, is seeing anything
resembling a proof.
Ref [1] John Gulland. The end of whaling. New Scientist 29 October 1988
Group soc.culture.nordic
article 845
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Mikko Katajam{ki
writes:
> Sorry, but I don't believe
> in your *goodwill* when you claim that people hunt whales to protect the
> egological balance. I think that whales have been swimming around few years
> longer than this hunting business has been going on. How did they survive
> before? I also think that nature itself have better means to keep up the
> balance than we peoples.
Either you've misunderstood my point, or, just as likely, I haven't
explained it very well. Whaling itself is not of utmost economical
importance. It did account to as much as 2% of the total export of
Iceland, which later fell below 1%. While it is not trivial, it really
is peanuts compared to the 90% or so that fish and fish products
produce.
In the sense of being a single product country, Iceland is sometimes
referred to as a 'developing' country, even if the GNP/capita is high.
Whales are huge creatures, and consume incredible amounts of food. It
is recognized that whales in the Icelandic waters consume far more food
than the total harvest of the fishing fleet in the area. While much of
the food is of no direct economic value, whales in general constitute a
significant competitor with regard to some of the commercially valuable
fish species.
More direct examples are the killer whales which consume significant
quantities of fish and often interfere with the fishing operations. And
the humpback, no longer hunted, is claimed to interfere with the import
capelin fishery. We must harvest our seas as effectively as we can. We
cannot afford the risk of whales endangering the ecological balance.
You may think that's unlikely, but there already is a good example of a
similar thing happening: the seals. The seals have multiplied out of
bounds, and are now widely considered a pest. Not only are they the
major breeding ground for ringworms, but they also digest enormous
quantites of valuable fish. Sure, eventually the population will level
off, but it's already too high.
> This kind of statements, covering the hunting
> in scientific aims and selling the meat under the name of totally diffe-
> rent articles really shows that you are not honest in what you are stating.
Ignoring your ad hominem attack, I venture to say that we've been a lot
more honest about our aims and methods than your favorite environmental
organizations.
Group soc.culture.nordic
article 846
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Craig Milo Rogers) writes:
> Personally, I view the whaling controversy as, in part, a
> continuation of age-long dispute between hunters and ranchers/farmers.
I think you've raised an interesting point.
> My question, now that I've laid my philosophical base, is to
> what extent are similar attitudes prevalent or emerging in the nordic
> countries? Is the average resident of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo or
> Helsinki likely to identify whaling with the daily survival of the
> fisherman/hunter, and empathize with the latter? Are attitudes the
> same in Reykjavik? the rural areas? the Faeroe Islands (:-)?
In Iceland, whaling is not considered much different from the regular
fishing operations, except that it is more limited (single organization
- single processing plant), more restricted, and shorter. The Faeroese
are even more dependent on fishing, and I think they are more directly
involved in it.
> To what extent do Icelanders view whaling as a traditional
> prerogative, which should not be relinquished without a fight; is this
> of more importance that whaling as a source of sustenance?
It's not much because of the custom, but because of it's importance
(see previous message).
> Have
> Icelanders already started converting from whale hunting to whale
> ranching?
I've never heard of whale ranching. Given the food requirements, it
sounds rather fictional. But in a sense, we think ourselves as ranchers
- on a farm so big that we are unable to fence it...
|
| 109.24 | Norwegian perspective | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Fri Aug 11 1989 11:37 | 62 |
| Group soc.culture.nordic
article 870
From: [email protected] (Hans Henrik Eriksen)
Subject: Re: Whaling
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Craig Milo Rogers) writes:
> My question, now that I've laid my philosophical base, is to
>what extent are similar attitudes prevalent or emerging in the nordic
>countries? Is the average resident of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo or
>Helsinki likely to identify whaling with the daily survival of the
>fisherman/hunter, and empathize with the latter? Are attitudes the
>same in Reykjavik? the rural areas? the Faeroe Islands (:-)?
In Norway, where I come from, most of the whalers had (comparably)
small boats and their catch would keep a small society up north busy
for the whole season. Now whaling is OUT and so are the whaling
communities. Many places on the northern coast of Norway is abandoned,
and many still living there have a uncertain future because of the lack
of fish. The threat nowadays comes NOT from overfishing, but from the
invasion of starving seals sweeping the fjords clean and destroying the
nets of the fishermen.
I think most Norwegians sympathize with the fishermen (at least the
Norwegian ones :-), and even whalers, on the issue of the right to fish
and do whaling since we KNOW that fishing is THE BASIS OF SURVIVAL for
those small communities, and not just another source of income for big
multinational companies emptying the north sea with their factory
ships. The fishermen KNOW that they have to be careful with their
resources, because overfishing today means no work tomorrow.
Last winter the Swedes got upset by a TV documentary showing seals
beeing slaughtered by Norwegian hunters. The documentary featured cute
baby seals with big black eyes watching their mothers beeing killed by
the hunters.. [Although the documentary was about Norwegian seal
hunting, and those scenes were 10 years old and did NOT show NORWEGIAN
hunters, the reporter didn't bother to point this out] Even the Swedish
King complained to the Norwegian Government about the seal hunting.
[The Norwegian press answered his complaint by refering to an incident
where His Royal Highness raced though a seal colony with his speedboat
some months before]
The Icelanders and the Norwegians are extremely vulnerable and rather
defenceless against attacks on their hunting when the attacks are based
on emotional manipulating. How could anyone fail to feel sorry for the
baby seal or for a whale doing harm to none? We think the environmental
fundamentalists have great lobbying power in the US, so when CNN
planned to show an excerpt of the above mentioned documentary, many
people over here saw the end of Norwegian salmon in USA. The Norwegian
Government imediately printed loads of material describing the
Norwegian point of view and shipped it to their US embassy. The
reactions on the CNN programs were ... none. All we ever saw was a
notice in the Washington Post which had got it all wrong: they quoted
SWEDISH restrictions on seal hunting. The Swedes do not hunt seal:-)
It seems some people are extremely well protected from the daily
killing for survival: remember that some perhaps not-so-cute cattle has
to DIE and that the rain forests are LEVELLED for you to get a BIG MAC.
Hans Henrik Eriksen ([email protected])
University of Oslo
|
| 109.25 | Stopped for now, but want to go again | MLTVAX::SAVAGE | Neil @ Spit Brook | Mon Aug 21 1989 15:39 | 18 |
| [New Scientist, 12 August 1989] Iceland last week called a halt to its
program of "scientific" whaling. The hunt, aimed at providing specimens
for scientific research on whale populations, was permitted as an
exception to the ban on whaling imposed in 1987 by the International
Whaling Commission (IWC). Environmentalists fought the hunt by
boycotting Icelandic fish.
Jakob Jakobsson, head of the Institute for Marine Science in Reykjavik,
says the program was stopped because it was intended to last for only
four summer whaling seasons. The results will now be used to calculate
the sizes of whale populations around Iceland, and the number of whales
that can be caught sustainably, for presentation to the IWC in the
spring of 1991.
"If the results show the whales are abundant, our government will
expect to be allowed a reasonable harvest," says Jakobsson. He says
that the preliminary results show that "fin and minke whales are
abundant on our waters."
|
| 109.26 | Norway also wants to resume | NEILS::SAVAGE | | Fri May 04 1990 14:19 | 58 |
| From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.europe,
clari.tw.environment
Subject: Norway wants to resume whaling
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, wildlife,
environment, farm implements, agriculture
Date: 2 May 90 23:55:04 GMT
Location: norway, japan
Slugword: whales
OSLO, Norway (UPI) -- Norway has officially asked the International
Whaling Commission to reclassify the Minke whale in a decision that
would pave the way for a hunt of 2,000 animals a year, a Norwegian
spokesman said Wednesday.
"We have asked the commission to put the issue on the agenda for
its next meeting in Holland in July," Norwegian fisheries spokesman Jan
Wessel Hegg told United Press International. "Our research shows that
the species is not endangered," he said. We feel that an annual cull of
2,000 animals, as has previously been the case, would not be
detrimental to the species." Hegg said the next IWC meeting is July 2
in Noordwijk, Holland.
Although an IWC agreement to reclassify the Minke whale would pave
the way for a renewed commercial hunt, Norway's government and
political parties would have to give the final go-ahead for whaling to
start. Norway's fisheries inspectorate says it has counted 77,000
animals in the North Atlantic Minke whale herd. It claims the total
size of the herd may be as high as 115,000 animals.
Norway annually culled 2,000 of the North Atlantic herd for several
decades after World War II until a 1982 IWC moratorium on whale
hunting. "Our scientists feel that the herd can tolerate such a hunt
again," Hegg said. The Minke whale is the smallest of the great whale
family, reaching a maximum length of about 30 feet.
"We have asked the IWC to discuss at its next meeting changing the
status of the Minke whale from a protected species to a sustainable
stock," Hegg said. Such a change in status would allow an immediate
hunt.
Since the 1982 moratorium, Norway, Iceland and Japan have continued
to hunt Minke whales under an IWC research agreement. Norway hunted 17
animals last year and was expected to take five animals in the 1990
season. The three countries say research whaling is needed to study
the development of species of whales and to determine stocks and
migratory patterns.
Following an aggressive environmentalist campaign that included
American threats of an embargo against Icelandic fish products, Iceland
this year stopped all hunting. Japan is thought to have hunted more
than 300 animals under the research agreement.
Norway's wish to start whaling again comes following three years of
poor fish catches in the North Sea. Norway says the Minke whales and
the large seal population off Norwegian coasts are to blame for a
severe fall in the number of capelin and cod that are the mainstay of
the Norwegian fishing industry.
|
| 109.27 | Norway, Iceland, Greenland want limited exploitation | CHARLT::SAVAGE | | Fri Jul 06 1990 15:08 | 32 |
| From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.tw.environment,clari.news.europe
Subject: International whaling commission faces split
Keywords: international, wildlife, environment, water
Date: 6 Jul 90 06:39:54 GMT
Location: norway
ACategory: international
Slugword: whales
NOORDWIJK, Holland (UPI) -- A splinter group within the
International Whaling Commission has threatened to set up its own
organization to permit the hunting of small whales, delegates said
Thursday. The 29-nation IWC held its 42nd annual meeting in Noordwijk
to evaluate a 1982 ban on whaling that was imposed because of a drastic
fall in whale stocks worldwide.
Norway and Iceland in particular believe stocks of smaller whales
have increased dramatically in recent years. Norway's chief delegate
Dagfinn Stenseth said the commission had failed to meet its original
purpose of reviewing the moratorium on commercial whaling. He claimed
that scientific evidence showed that the present size of the stock of
some whale species now permitted "limited exploitation."
In the face of intransigence by a majority of IWC nations on whale
hunting, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands have
threatened to form an alternative pro-whaling organization. But
Stenseth denied rumors that Norway would quit the IWC after its final
meeting Friday. Instead, he said, ministers of Iceland and Norway were
to have a bilateral meeting in Oslo July 16 to discuss the issue.
Among other matters presented to the IWC Thursday was an appeal by
38 environmental organizations to stop the hunt on Dall porpoises.
|
| 109.28 | Update on the issues, from several perspectives | TLE::SAVAGE | | Wed Apr 03 1991 16:50 | 185 |
| From: [email protected] (Magnus M Halldorsson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: The Whaling Dispute
Date: 3 Apr 91 14:55:52 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
If you thought that the tiresome whaling arguments were past us, you
guessed wrong. In fact, they just might balloon this year again. I
stumbled upon this article that follows, which cover many of the
important issues.
Magnus
[Excerpted without permission from Ex, The Magazine for Nordic Airport
Passengers, March 1991]
A Question of Quotas?
---------------------
Iceland was the first country ever to protect whales by law. When the
International Whaling Commission meets in Reykjavik in May, Icelanders
and Norwegians will be arguing for a resumption of commercial minke
whaling. ROBERT MELLK discusses some of the issues.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Marine mammals are a vital part of the North Atlantic ecosystem
surrounding Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, but there is much
to learn about their role in the ecosystem as a whole, and there
remains major disagreement as to whether or not the hunting of these
mammals should resume.
International protectioninst groups, among which Greenpeace is probably
the most vociferous, claim that the mammals are endangered - a
contention now rejected outright by all marine research institutes in
the North Atlantic.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) maintains its classification
of the Northeast Atlantic minke whale stock as protected, which means
unavailable for any commercial exploitation. The Commission's critics
observe that the classification was based upon estimates made in the
early 1980s, when the stock was estimated to be no larger than 16,000.
Since then, however, considerable research has been conducted.
Professor Lars Vall"oe, a leading Norwegian scientist and personal
advisor on environmental issues to the Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro
Harlem Brundtland, says there is now no doubt about current estimates
regarding the size of the Northeast Atlantic minke whale stock. "The
estimated size is at least 81,500 animals, which indicates that hunting
over the past 50 years by Norwegian minke whalers has had no
detrimental effect on the stock size," he says.
For its part, the IWC's scientific committee has issued a slightly
smaller estimate of about 71,500 animals. Whichever figure is accepted,
Professor Wall"oe believes the stock can sustain an annual catch of
between 1,600 and 3,000 minkes - similar to catches made during the
past half century.
Based on these findings, Norway is to demand a reclassification of the
minke whale stock at the forthcoming meeting of the IWC, to be held in
Reykjavik in two months' time. Iceland and Greenland will make a
similar request for commercial hunting quotas to be permitted from the
Northwest Atlantic minke whale stock, which is classified by the IWC's
scientific committee as not only being sustainable, but underutilised.
J'ohann Sigurj'onsson, senior scientist at the Marine Research
Institute in Reykjavik, says that whale stocks in Icelandic waters are
in no danger of becoming extinct. This is based on major sighting
survey conducted in 1989/90, the findings of which are accepted by the
peer review board of scientists within the IWC.
Environmentalist groups, on the other hand, continue to lobby against
any form of commercial whaling. Certain species, such as the blue and
humpback whales, which at the turn of the century were over-exploited,
are still classified as endangered - and completely protected. The
protectionists fear that the minke and fin whale will also become
endangered if commercial whaling resumes.
In an Icelandic documentary film, a former spokesman from Greenpeace
USA, Dean Wilkinson, who is now an employee of NOAA, which represents
the official US position at the IWC, said:"We hope that we will be able
to convince the Icelanders and the people in Faroe Islands that it is
not necessary to take whales or to take pilot whales."
A year ago, Jakob Lagerkrantz, a spokesman for Greenpeace Sweden,
stated in an interview on Norwegian radio that his organisation could
not accept the scientific findings as a basis for resuming commercial
hunting of minke whales, since Greenpeace now felt that information was
needed concerning the virgin status of the whale stocks - in other
words, the stock numbers before humans began hunting whales.
[..Discussion of the catching of pilot whales by the Faroese omitted..]
Other protectionist groups take a more moderate stance. Arne Schi"otz,
a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund in Denmark, states: "Our
principle is that we have the right to a reasonable utilisation of our
natural resources. That is, to live off the interest without reducing
the capital."
This principle echoes that of the North Atlantic countries dependent on
renewable natural resources for their survival. The key word, from
their viewpoint, is "renewable". They see attacks on them as being
based on a fundamental misunderstanding. It is in their own best
interests to harvest resources sensibly. If they do not, they would
literally be taking the food from their grandchildren's mouths. In
short, if you cannot live in harmony with Nature, you will pay the
price later on.
Iceland banned whaling in 1916 after excessive catches by foreign
vessels brought the stocks of many species to the brink of extinction.
In so doing, Iceland became the first country in the world to protect
whales by law!
Today, information collected by the Marine Research Institute in
Iceland is used to ensure that whale stocks are not depleted. The
Institute's research capability is extensive, as might be expected from
a nation that relies on marine products for nearly 80 per cent of its
export revenues.
A moratorium on commercial whaling was put into effect in 1986 by the
IWC, the intention being to give the nations of the world an
opportunity to investigate, scientifically, the status of the different
whale species and stocks. Understandably, driven by vital interests,
the whaling nations have conducted most of the research.
Environmentalists claim that economic interest has strongly influenced
this investigation.
Another question raised by some protectionists is whether it is morally
or ethically acceptable to kill whales. Michael Gylling Nielsen, the
chairman of Greenpeace Denmark, poses the question in a publication
entitled "Havets Mennesker" (People of the Oceans). The article states
that whales have humanlike qualities, their own language, even a highly
developed culture. It also claims whales pass on information from one
generation to another, and that they are capable of teaching humans
about the origins of the world.
This view is supported by Craig Van Note, Executive Vice President of
Monitor, a consortium of 35 environmental and animal welfare groups. In
a videotaped interview, he elaborated by saying that it was only a
question of time before whales would start communicating with people.
Most marine biologists do not find these ideas credible, stating that
the intelligence of commonly harvested baleen whales parallels the
intelligence level of a cow - a similarly "intelligent" animal.
[One reference on this is an article of Dr. Margaret Klinowska that
appeared in the New Scientist 29 Oct 1988, pp.46-47. I have it on-line,
if anyone is interested. - mmh]
The whaling dispute is now causing grave concern within the North
Atlantic fisheries industry. Jon Lauritzsen of the Norwegian Fisheries
Organisation stated at the last annual meeting of the minke whalers
that the organisation is now ready to support the whalers
wholeheartedly against the environmentalists.
According to Lauritzsen, it is now evident that protectionist groups
are targeting the entire fisheries industry in order to interfere with
the utilisation of various fish stocks. Iceland's Minister of
Fisheries, Halld'or 'Asgr'imsson, is not surprised that
environmentalists are moving towards the inclusion of fish as protected
species. "This is in line with what we said, that after whaling stopped
they would then begin looking at the whale's food chain. But we must
continue to carry out our policy of utilising natural resources in the
most sensible way."
Nor has it escaped the attention of those countries dependent on
fisheries for their livelihood that the campaign against sealing
organised by Greenpeace and its allies resulted not only in import bans
on seal fur - but in thousands of Inuit hunters in Canada and Greenland
being reduced to poverty as their livelihood was ruined. Now Greenpeace
has announced that it will interfere with the catching of capelin in
the Barents Sea this spring, because it does not accept catch quotas
established by the Norwegian Marine Institute. Greenpeace claims the
quotas are in excess of good management practices and would be damaging
to the North Atlantic ecosystem.
Many environmentalist groups also claim that fish stocks need to be
protected as a food source for the increasing stocks of marine mammals.
Whilst the struggle over utilisation of ocean resources continues and
expands, it seems that perhaps the fundamental question might have been
overlooked. John Dahl, an Inuit teacher, sums up the North Atlantic
native point of view in this way: "People who live in large cities, out
in the big world, try to adjust their environment to meet their own
needs. In Greenland, we must adjust ourselves to the needs of the
environment."
|
| 109.29 | Environmental group says Denmark is 'obstructionist' | TLE::SAVAGE | | Thu May 23 1991 16:42 | 66 |
| From: [email protected] (SHAUNA STAFFORD)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.environment,clari.news.europe,clari.biz.top
Subject: Open fishing threaten survival of several species
Date: 23 May 91 15:58:55 GMT
LONDON (UPI) -- Uncontrolled fishing for dolphins, porpoises and small
whales by fishing fleets and sportsmen may reach 1.5 million this year,
threatening the extinction of several species, an environmental action
group said Thursday.
The Environmental Investigation Agency in a report appealed to the
International Whaling Commission to implement controls on the killing of
the 65 species of dolphins, porpoises and small whales, known as
cetaceans.
"We are afraid no action will be taken," said Allan Thornton,
spokesman for the London-based environmental group. "A handful of
countries led by Denmark, Mexico and Japan are continuing to obstruct
international efforts to save these animals from extinction."
The group said the whaling commission is the only international body
with the political competence and technical expertise to prevent the
extinction of dozens of cetacean species. The 39-member whaling
commission, which banned commercial whaling of 10 larger species in
1982, meets Monday in Iceland.
In the report, titled "The Global War Against Small Cetaceans," the
EIA tripled its estimate of the number of sea mammals killed, from 500,
000 to 1.5 million.
According to the report, Japan is one of the worst violators and has
continued to kill thousands of dolphins, including over 22,000 Dall's
porpoises, twice the number set by a 1990 whaling commission resolution.
Denmark, as a member of the European Community, does not allow
cetacean hunting in its waters although the EIA claims thousands of
harbor porpoises are killed in the North Sea each year by Danish fishing
fleets.
Denmark also "turns a blind eye to the annual killing of thousands
of cetaceans in the Danish territories of Greenland and the Faroe
Islands," the report said.
"Denmark is being completely obstructionist ... and just doesn't
care if the dolphins and other species are hunted to extinction,"
Thornton said.
Other countries named in the report as blocking conservation efforts
are Korea, Spain, Chile, Norway and Iceland.
Dolphins are chopped up and used for crab and shark bait in Chile and
other Latin American countries and often fraudulently sold as whale meat
in Japan, the report said.
In the Eastern Pacific last year, 55,000 dolphins were killed by tuna
fishing fleets. Since tuna swim beneath dolphins, both are often netted,
the EIA said. The number dropped from 100,000 the previous year because
American fleets pulled out of the area, but Mexico refuses to stop such
methods of fishing.
The EIA report recommended to the International Whaling Commission a
global ban on netting dolphins with tuna and that "governments or
industry claiming to sell 'dolphin friendly' tuna should implement a
comprehensive verification system ... to ensure the integrity of their
tuna supplies."
Two species considered most endangered are the Beluga whales in the
arctic territories of Greenland, Canada, the United States and Soviet
Union, and the Vaquita porpoise that exists only in Mexico's Gulf of
California.
The environmental group said more than 5,000 Beluga are caught each
year.
The Vaquita is the world's most endangered cetacean, but, the report
claims, Mexico has disregarded an IWC recommendation in 1990 that
numbers killed in passive trap and net fisheries must be reduced.
"The Beluga and the Vaquita need specific protection this year
because if no action is taken we are talking about these species going
extinct," Thornton said.
|
| 109.30 | Iceland considers withdrawing from IWC | TLE::SAVAGE | | Tue Jun 04 1991 17:33 | 38 |
| From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.tw.environment,
clari.news.europe
Subject: Iceland to withdraw from International Whaling Commission
Date: 3 Jun 91 17:37:30 GMT
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (UPI) -- Iceland is likely to withdraw from the
International Whaling Commission after the organization refused last
week to allow limited whale-hunt quotas, Icelandic Radio said.
The report monitored in Copenhagen said Icelandic Minister of
Fisheries Thorsteinn Palsson was preparing Iceland's withdrawal and
seeking the support of other reluctant IWC members in order to set up an
alternative regional whaling body.
The Icelandic decision came after a plenary meeting of 36 IWC members
in Reykjavik last week refused to drop a five-year moratorium on
commercial whaling, despite recommendations to do so on certain species
by the body's Scientific Committee.
The commission agreed to further study the possibility of culling
Antarctic minke whales, but would not make an immediate decision on
hunting the stocks, which are located far from the traditional hunting
grounds of the three main nations that seek them.
Iceland, Norway and Japan have all called for limited hunt quotas to
be allowed on certain types of smaller whale, predominantly the minke
and fin.
Following scientific surveys of the whales carried out by all three
whaling nations, the Scientific Committee last week recommended to the
plenary body that the findings of the three nations could allow the
strictly controlled whaling of certain species.
But the plenary meeting refused to follow the recommendation, despite
threats by Iceland to walk out of the organization, and statements from
Norway and Japan suggesting they would re-evaluate their membership.
All three nations claim some smaller whale species have replenished
their stocks in various regional populations and can tolerate limited
hunting again.
Conservationists and environmental organizations, however, say that
although stocks are on the rise, all species of whale require more time
to build up their numbers.
|
| 109.31 | Rub whale meat in America's face on the Fourth of July | COVERT::COVERT | John R. Covert | Mon Jun 17 1991 09:05 | 19 |
| OSLO (Reuters) -- Norwegian whalers said Sunday that they will start
illegal commercial hunting of minke whales on July 4.
The hunt would defy an international five-year moratorium and governemnt
pledges not to kill any whales this year.
"We will start whaling this year. We invite everyone in Norway to whaling
on July 4. Then you will eat whale meat until you puke," Steinar Bastesen,
head of the North Norwegian Minke Whalers Association, said on national
radio.
"We find that the United States' national day, July 4, is a good day to
start the hunt," Bastesen added. "We will make trouble."
Norway, Japan, and Iceland had argued before the International Whaling
Commission that minke whale stocks have recovered sufficiently to sustain
limited commercial catches and asked for permission to hunt a limited
number this year. In May, the Commission turned down the requests, and
Iceland said it would withdraw from the body.
|
| 109.32 | Re: .31: UPI newswire, with details | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon Jun 17 1991 11:38 | 55 |
| From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.interest.animals,
clari.news.europe
Subject: Norwegian whalers to resume hunt in July
Date: 17 Jun 91 09:29:20 GMT
OSLO, Norway (UPI) -- Norwegian whalers said Monday they will break an
International Whaling Commission and national moratorium on commercial
whaling and resume hunting minke whale July 4.
"In launching this hunt, we are only following the recommendation of
the IWC's own scientific committeee to the IWC annual meeting in
Reykjavik last month," Nordland Fishermen's organization chairman
Steinar Bastesen said.
Bastesen said that between 15 and 20 vessels were expected to join
the hunt, which would start July 4 and which had the support of the
regional fishermen's union in the rugged northern arctic county of
Nordland.
Bastesen said his union also demanded Norway should immediately
withdraw from the 37-nation IWC, which has banned commercial whaling
despite a recommendation from the organization's Scientific Committee
that hunting could resume on certain smaller species of whale.
Iceland, Japan and Norway have long called for the 1982 IWC
moratorium to be lifted and hunting quotas reintroduced for certain
species of whale, but the three countries have so far abided by a
majority decision of the IWC to maintain the ban.
Norwegian Minister of Fisheries Oddrun Pettersen refused Monday to
comment on plans by the Nordland whalers to resume hunting, which gives
employment to some 400 people.
Norway expressed written reservations to the IWC moratorium when it
was imposed.
In 1988, Norway placed a temporary ban on minke hunts, pending a
comprehensive assessment of stocks due to be completed by the
International Whaling Commission.
In 1987, a quota of 325 minke whales were taken from the Northeast
Atlantic stocks, and 50 from the Jan Mayen stock.
Since then, Norwegian scientists have extensively research and
limited culling in order to map the size and habits of the minke whale.
Twenty-nine minke whales were caught in 1988, and 17 in 1989. In 1990,
Norway took a scientific catch of five minke whales.
As a result of the scientific program, Norwegian scientists now gauge
the minke whale population of the northern hemisphere at 80,000 animals
-- higher than the 60,000 animals suggested by the IWC scientific
committee in its latest report to the IWC.
Norway claims that on the basis of most recent scientific stock
research now available to the IWC, a limited quota system of minke
culling should be introduced.
Environment organizations say, however, that stocks need further
breathing space so their reproduction rate of 1,200 to 1,300 animals per
year can bring their numbers back to levels at the turn of the century.
This month, Iceland said it planned to withdraw from the IWC
following the organization's decision to maintain a blanket moratorium.
Icelandic Fisheries Minister Thorsteinn Palsson said June 3 his
country was to contact other nations --in particular Norway, Greenland,
the Faroe Islands and Japan -- on setting up an alternative whaling body.
|
| 109.33 | 1992 Glasgow whale conference starts with protest | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon Jun 29 1992 11:18 | 80 |
| From: [email protected] (ANNE WALLACE)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.environment,clari.news.europe,clari.news.demonstration
Subject: Protest marks start of Glasgow whale conference
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 3:50:46 PDT
LONDON (UPI) -- Greenpeace urged backing for an Antarctic whale
sanctuary and urged caution in the development of management procedures
Monday at the start of the annual meeting of the International Whaling
Commission in Glasgow.
More than 1,000 people demonstrated Sunday in Glasgow against
proposals to lift the worldwide ban on commercial whaling on the eve of
the meeting.
Glasgow police said there were no arrests at the demonstration.
The ban on the slaughter of whales was challenged Monday. Commercial
whaling was outlawed in 1986 by the 37-nation IWC, but a legal loophole
enables Japan and other countries to hunt for "scientific research."
Japan, Norway and Iceland have been pressing for the right to resume
commercial whale hunting.
Iceland, Japan and other whaling countries have come under criticism
from conservation groups for their hunting practices.
The U.S.-based International Environmental Agency accused Japan and
Denmark of "actively opposing conservation efforts."
"Danish policy is being dictated by commercial whaling interests
from Norway, Japan and Iceland," it said in a statement.
At Sunday's rally in Glasgow, botanist David Bellamy and Tony Banks,
a British member of Parliament from the opposition Labor party, called
for a boycott against Japan if it does not stop whaling.
"If the decision of the commission goes against what we all feel,
and whaling is continued in any form, we must see sanctions against
those nations," Bellamy said.
Accompanied by a 50-foot inflatable whale, Bellamy said, "If these
people want something exotic to eat, they should try eating each other."
Iceland has withdrawn from the International Whaling Commission,
effective at the end of July.
Delegates from Iceland were at the Glasgow meeting, and said they
will continue with their plans to withdraw unless the IWC changes its
attitude.
"We believe (the IWC) has become ineffective in fulfilling its
responsibilities," Helgi Agustsson, Iceland's ambassador to Britain,
told United Press International.
"It's no longer an organization for whale management, but for whale
protection," he said. "We have repeatedly shown through scientific
evidence that there are so many whales in the ocean that it is
absolutely safe to utilize them as we have been doing."
Agustsson said political pressure forced the IWC to ignore the needs
of its member countries and to focus on conservation in areas where it
was not needed.
"We believe we have a right as a coastal state to harvest the living
marine resources, and this is laid down in the IWC's own convention and
other international agreements," Agustsson said.
Agustsson said Iceland was the first nation to unilaterally ban
whaling, from 1915 to 1935.
"We have been in the forefront of regulating and managing many
species in the North Atlantic," he said.
Greenpeace voiced support for a plan that would make all Antarctic
waters a sanctuary for whales.
"Since the moratorium was supposed to have come into effect more
than six years ago, 14,000 whales have been killed through the flagrant
abuse of loopholes in the IWC's convention," Greenpeace spokesman
Kieran Mulvaney told a news conference Monday.
The proposed sanctuary would prohibit commercial whaling in all
waters within a proscribed area. The area covers the main feeding
grounds of the sperm whale and of all baleen whale species except the
tropical Bryde's whale.
Greenpeace said the santuary proposal would help protect populations
of all Southern Hemisphere species throughout their migratory grounds
and life cycles, and help restore the Antarctic marine ecosystem.
Japan and Iceland wrote to the IWC secretariat as soon as the
sanctuary proposal was announced to argue that it was "inappropriate,"
Greenpeace said.
Mulvaney urged the IWC member states to think carefully before
adopting a new procedure for the management of whaling, and to closely
examine the Revised Management Procedure before the Commission, which he
said contained serious flaws.
"Seventeen years ago, the IWC believed it had the perfect, fail-safe
management procedure -- a management procedure which would prevent the
over-exploitation of whale stocks," Mulvaney said.
"Only one form of 'management' for whaling has shown any signs of
working so far, and that's been the moratorium," he said. "The best
hope for whales is for the moratorium to stay in place."
|
| 109.34 | Norway to resume in 1993 | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon Jun 29 1992 16:24 | 73 |
| From: [email protected] (ANNE WALLACE)
Newsgroups: clari.news.europe,clari.biz.economy.world,clari.biz.labor
Subject: Norway plans to resume whale hunting in 1993
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 9:55:46 PDT
LONDON (UPI) -- Norway angered conservationist delegates at the first
day of the annual International Whaling Commission conference Monday by
announcing it would resume commercial hunting of protected minke whales
in the northeastern Atlantic during the 1993 season.
"Recent research has demonstrated that the 1985 IWC classification
of minke whales as a 'protected stock' is not warranted," the Norwegian
Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"In the event that the IWC does not adopt the necessary decisions,
Norway will, in accordance with proposals made by the IWC Scientific
Committee, establish a quota for commercial harvesting," the statement
said.
In 1986, a year after the small minke whales were declared protected,
the IWC declared a moratorium on all whaling. But Norway said this ban
was unnecessary because the IWC Scientific Committee had recently
estimated the number of minke whales in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean
at 86,788.
"The harvesting of a stock of this size on a sound scientific and
sustainable basis is fully justified," the Norwegian statement said.
The international environmental group Greenpeace said the whales
Norway planned to hunt would come from protected stock and that Norway's
statement claiming the stock no longer required protection was "a total
lie."
Calling Norway a "declared pirate whaling nation," Greenpeace
spokesman Kieran Mulvaney said the announcement confirmed what
Greenpeace had always maintained.
"We have always said that if ever the door was opened even slightly
to whaling, then the whalers would take as many whales as they wanted,
regardless of whether scientific evidence was against them," he said.
"This is why the moratorium must remain in place."
Commercial whaling was banned in 1986 by the IWC while whale stocks
were examined, but a legal loophole enables Japan and other countries to
hunt for "scientific research." Japan, Norway and Iceland have been
pressing for the legal right to resume commercial whale hunting.
Greenpeace urged backing for an Antarctic whale sanctuary that would
prohibit commercial whaling in all waters within a proscribed area
around the continent. The area would cover the main feeding grounds of
the sperm whale and of all baleen whale species except the tropical
Bryde's whale.
The environmental group said the statuary proposal would help protect
populations of all Southern Hemisphere species throughout their
migratory grounds and life cycles and help restore the Antarctic marine
ecosystem.
Mulvaney urged the IWC member states to think carefully before
adopting a new procedure for the management of whaling, and to closely
examine the Revised Management Procedure, which he said contained
serious flaws.
"Seventeen years ago, the IWC believed it had the perfect, fail-safe
management procedure, a management procedure which would prevent the
over-exploitation of whale stocks," Mulvaney said.
"Only one form of 'management' for whaling has shown any signs of
working so far, and that's been the moratorium," he said. "The best
hope for whales is for the moratorium to stay in place."
The High North Alliance, a group representing small coastal fishing
communities from the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and Norway, said
Greenpeace's contentions were not based on scientific fact.
"One hundred IWH scientists have assessed whale stocks that could be
harvested, and only six out of that hundred didn't recommend lifting the
hunting ban," said Georg Blichfeldt, a High North Alliance spokesman.
Blichfeldt said his tiny whaling community and others represented by
the High North Alliance were dependent on whaling for their survival,
with 20 percent unemployment over the past few summers of the whaling
ban, when normally workers would have been hunting whales.
""These communities are dependent on whaling. I don't know if my
society would have a future without whaling," Blichfeldt said.
Blichfeldt said the size of the whale stocks had nothing to do with
Greenpeace's decisions. "They don't want any whaling, not ever," he
said. "And if you ban whaling, sealing is next. They have already been
able to destroy the market for seal. Communities have been badly hurt."
|
| 109.35 | Northern Norwegians' viewpoint | TLE::SAVAGE | | Wed Jul 01 1992 09:52 | 79 |
| Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: [email protected] (Frode Kileng)
Subject: Norway resumes comercial Whale hunting
Sender: [email protected] (USENET News System)
Organization: Norwegian Telecom, Research Dep., Tromsoe, Norway
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 17:24:58 GMT
The prime minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland, annonunced
yesterday that Norway will resume commercial hunting on minke whales
from 1993. This decision is based on the IWC's (International Whale
Commission) scientific committee's unanimous statement that hunting on
the north-east atlantic mink whale stock (86 700 population) can be
resumed.
The hunting will follow the committee's plan for hunting if the plan is
approved by the IWC's annual meeting. If the plan is not approved then
Norway will set the quote based on the committee's plan. The decision
is important for the rural areas of the nothern part of Norway that
dependent on this hunting.
To summarize: Norway resumes the hunting because :
1. It's scientifically proved that the minke whale is not in danger of
extinction.
2. The hunting is important for areas in the nothern part of Norway.
This was the facts. Now to my personal view.
The reason Norway stopped the hunting was because of claims that the
minke whale stock was in danger of extinction. It was decided that the
hunting would stop so the IWC could investigate this claim. They have
now proved that the claim was false but they are not able to agree on
whether the whales are too 'cute' to kill.
This whale discussion is not unique. Last time we in nothern Norway
had problems was when 'Greenpeace' attacked the seal hunting. The same
arguments was used, first the danger of extinction then the 'cuteness'.
Norway temporary stopped the hunting and the result was disastrous.
The seal stock expanded so much that the coast was crowded with seals.
Where was Greenpeace when a great amount of the stock died of hunger
and became trapped in fishing nets ? Anyway, Norway resumed the
hunting but this time Greanpeace was silent (Was their income on this
case stagnated so they had to switch to the whale business ?).
Greenpeace is not a popular organization in nothern Norway. This is
not because we don't care about the environment, we have to care
because it's the basis of our economy. The seal campaign of Greenpeace
was a lesson in how to mainpulate people's emotions. Photos of
big-eyed cute seals and barbarous norwegians. This method is legal and
we can't do anything but admire the PR people in Greenpeace. The same
PR-tricks were used but the worst part was how Greenpeace manipulated
the IWC when this campaign started. Representatives from small
countries were under direct control of Greenpeace. Representatives
were recruited by Greenpeace, brought to the IWC meeting by them (they
paid their expences) and wrote their speeches. This manipulation was
exposed by some USA journalists.
People up here feel haunted. As I said the economy is based on
harvesting the sea. Beside the whale and seal campaigns we also has
problems with our salmon trade. American 'salmon farmers' accused
norway for dumping salmon on their market. They claimed that the
salmon was subsidized by the norwegan government. Norway lost the case
(of course....) and norwegian salmon got a 'heavy' penalty tax.
Enough of this.... I really look forward to a delicious whale steak
again, it's years since I last had the opportunity.
Ps: Flame me on my opinions but please dont waste bandwith on
flaming my english....
Regards
Frode Kileng
Tromsoe, Norway
|
| 109.36 | An EC connection? | TLE::SAVAGE | | Thu Jul 02 1992 12:33 | 49 |
| From: [email protected] (JULIAN M. ISHERWOOD)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.tw.environment,
clari.news.europe
Subject: EC politician says whaling could stop Norwegian EC membership
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 92 3:30:21 PDT
COPENHAGEN (UPI) -- A senior European Community parliamentarian has
warned Norway that any resumption of whaling could stymie a Norwegian EC
membership application.
Speaking on Norwegian State Radio late Wednesday, EC Parliament
Environment Committee Chairman Hemmo Muntingh said that whaling was
"incompatible" with EC membership.
Norway announced on Monday at a meeting of the International Whaling
Commission in Glasgow that it planned to resume commercial whaling in
1993, following extensive research on stocks of the Minke whale, which
it says now numbers 86,700, up some 18,000 on 1991 figures.
Meantime, the environmental organization Greenpeace said Norwegian
Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundltand's position as a champion of the
environment had dissipated.
Norway's decision brought immediate denunciation from most members of
the IWC, which in 1986 imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling.
Japan, Norway and Iceland have continued limited whaling under IWC
scientific whaling quotas.
Brundtland rejected Thursday EC and IWC criticism, saying the
Norwegian government had carried out "all necessary resaerch before
reaching its decision."
"We see no connection between the resumption of whaling and EC
membership. Whaling is a perfectly legal business here in Norway," said
Foreign Ministry spokesman Vegard Ellefsen.
Muntingh's statement caused a flurry of diplomatic activity Thursday
with Norway asking for an explanation of the EC position. Although the
EC has no unified stance on whaling and has not forbidden member
countries from whale hunting, it does ban all imports of whale products.
"This could, of course be a problem for Norway if it applies for
membership and of course such a resumption of whaling would likely be
raised in discussions surrounding membership," said EC Information
Officer in Oslo Sigurd Sandvin.
"But we must point out that neither the Rome Treaty nor the
Maastricht Treaty have any provisions specifically banning whaling," he
added.
"The (European) Commission has no legal preventive jurisdiction
here. But on the other hand it is not the Commission that admits new
members, it is the other member states," Sandvin said.
Norway has not yet sought membership in the EC, although Brundtland
has said it should do so. A decision on whether to apply for membership
will be taken following a Labour Party convention in November.
Norway voted in a highly divisive referendum in 1972 to reject EC
membership, and the issue has been one of the most explosive in
Norwegian politics for two decades.
|
| 109.37 | Norwegians hunt for cultural reasons | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon Jul 13 1992 10:43 | 169 |
| From: [email protected] (Gisle Hannemyr)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: The whaling situation: Science and sentimentality
Date: 10 Jul 92 16:55:52 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Gisle Hannemyr)
Organization: [email protected]
In article <[email protected]>
[email protected] (Michael Qvortrup) writes:
> Letting that aspect out of the discussion for a moment, several other
> arguments of the proponents' have been shown to be not very well
> grounded in reality either. Examples here are 'they eat the fish'
If someone has argued for of minke whale hunting beacuse "they eat the
fish" that person doesn't know very much about minke whales. Minke
whales don't have teeth, but eat by sifting sea water through a set of
stiff hairlike things in its mouth (Norwegian "barde" -- I don't know
what they are called in English). Only very small sea animals get
through the "barde", and the whales diet is therefore small crustacians
and small fish that are of no commercial importance.
The sea mammals that "eat all the fish" is seals, not whales. After it
became immpossible to sell seal skin abroad, commercial seal hunting
ceased. The result has been that the seal population has exploded in
recent years, and big schools of starved seals has started to leave
their natural habitat outside Greenland and in pure desperation tried
to migrate elsewhere. In the last years, a large number of seals has
perished from hunger and exhaustion because of this, and last summer
there was at least one beach in the North that was full of stinking
seal carcasses from animals that had starved to death. I hold the
"city slicker environmentalism" of Greenpeace fully responsible for the
seal tragedies I have witnessed outside the coast of Norway in recent
years, and I believe a seal slowly starving to death is suffering just
as much as a seal pup being clubbed to death for its pelt.
> and 'it is not crueller that other slaughtering methods'.
But it is not crueller than any other slaughtering methods! I guess
that me putting an exclamation point behind that statement is not going
to convince you, neigther I guess, is testimonials from named whale
scientists that (at least in Norwegian media -- I've heard that media
in the US and Europe is not very interested in their opinions) keeps
repeating that 'it is not crueller that other slaughtering methods'.
But leaving extreme slaughtering methods such as the British fox hunt
out of it, condider the following:
- Whale hunting: a sober marksman is firing at a 30 meter distance at
an animal with a target (chest) size of 2 meters. He knows the whale
is coming up three times each time to "blow", and he has got sonar and
other aids to track a whale. The boat can track the whale under
water, and can run at a speed 4 times that of the whale. Once a whale
is spotted, it cannot escape. The harpoonist need not shoot before
he knows he has a clean kill. There might not be much sportmanship
in whale hunting, but a clean kill is almost assured. There is
no damaged and wounded animals escaping (there isn't a single record
of a wounded animal escaping as long as there has been IWC inspectors
to record these things on board Norwegian whalers).
vs.
Game hunting: a bunch of (often drunken) friends plodding around
in the forest taking pot-shots at anything that moves. Wounding
an animal, leaving it to suffer and die from its wound is not an
uncommon occurance.
- Whale hunting: the animal is allowed to live a natural life in
its natural habitat up to the point where it is killed by a
predator (man).
vs.
Lifestock breeding: the animals is kept in very unnatural
surrsoundings on an unnatural diet, and is often bred in a way
that causes hardship for the animals. When the more intelligent
animals are brought to the abattoir, they _know_ they are going
to die (ever witnessed the sheer terror of a pig waiting in line
to be slaughtered?).
> The economic
> aspect still hasn't been adressed with any accuracy yet, but the
> quota sizes seen so far doesn't lend it much credence. On the other
> hand, it has been said that those quotas are just for research purposes
> and may be raised in the future. This strengthens the economic argument,
> but the 'future escalation' argument of the opponents.
This years quota is 110 animals for Norway, out of a population of at
least 87,000 animals. This year, however, is a trial season, and not
really commercial. Next year's quota has not been decided yet. It is
up to researchers and the IWC to decide on a quota. It should be noted
that in the years 1973 to 1986, Norway had a fixed yearly quota of
1,975 animals. If whaling is permitted in 1993, I would expect that
the quota for 1993 to be that figure (and not escalated beyond it in
the years to come). As stated above, Norway has no intention of
escalating its whaling industry.
> Does anybody have any numbers on the economic importance of whaling?
> Percentage of revenue in the fishing industry generated by whaling,
> both on national and regional levels. Importance of fishing in the
> national economy of the involved countries. Employment figures, etc.
There are 83 family operated boats involved in the Norwegian whaling
industry, each employing 8-10 people "on the field", and a smaller
number in four processing facilities on land. That means that a full
scale whaling industry (1,975 animals) employs about 1,200 people --
but obviously not full time (the whaling season is short).
A minke whale is sold for approx. NOK 40,000 from the boat, and a minke
whale that is processed, packaged and sold to consumers is about four
times that (NOK 160,000). Multiplying that with 1,975 animals, we find
that whaling (on the field) is an industry the size of NOK 79 million
(US $13.2), and that if we include processing and distribution, we get
an "industry" with a size NOK 316 million (US$ 52.7).
You will probably conclude from this that whaling is of minute economic
importance and that there will be no problem for Norway to cease
whaling and just compensate the 1200 people for their loss of revenue.
In that case, you will be right. Not only that, but if we really start
to think economically about this, Norway is suffering for its whaling.
There are reports about boycotts against Norwegian salmon and other
fisheries products, a Norwegian sleeping bag manufacturer has already
received cancellations for export orders worth thousands of dollars, a
Norwegian exporter of water heaters just received a huge cancallation
citing whaling as the reason. There are even reports that Volvo
dealerships in the US are having problems (their customers seem to know
just as little about geography as they know about whaling). The
inevitable footage of blood in the water, and huge knifes slicing open
the dead whale has not yet hit the television screens all over Europe
and the US, but I know the outrage we'll get when that footage arrives.
I would estimate that Norway's loss of export revenue would by far
exceed the economic importance of whaling to Norway.
So why don't we just pay these people for "not catching any whales",
just as the most western countries in a starving world is paying its
farmers for "not growing corn". It is clearly not an economic issue.
I believe it, among other things, is a very profound dispute about
environmentalism. Norway has always pursued a policy where it has been
considered important to preserve primary industries (farming and
fisheries), rather than building secondary industries (metalworks, oil
refineries, etc.) despite the fact that Norway is a mountain country
rich in mineral and energy resources suitable for secondary industries.
I believe that one of the objectives of environentalism is to make it
possible for people to stay in their original communities. Most
Norwegians dislike big cities and big factories. Whaling is an
important symbol for that environmental movement. Is nature an
exhibition, for man to watch but not touch; or is it a place where man
is an integral part, a place where he can live, kill and work (as long
as he behaves responsibly)? I think these are important issues, and
from my viewpoint the EC and Greenpeace stance on whaling just seems
completely alienated from nature -- and quite incomprehensible from an
ecological and environmental viewpoint.
The current debate here in r.s.n has degenerated to the level where the
opponents repeat: "Why do you _have_to_ hunt whales?"; and the
proponents keep replying: "Why can't we hunt whales?". There is not
much insight to be gained from this, and I understand that Norway has
lost the battle. Unless the EC goes back on yesterday's ruling about
whaling being incompatible with a place in Europe, whaling will proably
not be permitted in the 1993 season.
--
Disclaimer: My employer seldom even LISTENS to my opinions.
- gisle hannemyr (Norwegian Computing Center)
EAN: C=no;PRMD=uninett;O=nr;S=Hannemyr;G=Gisle (X.400 SA format)
[email protected] (RFC-822 format)
Inet: [email protected]
UUCP: ...!mcsun!ifi!gisle
------------------------------------------------
|
| 109.38 | Norwegian scientific hunting | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon Aug 17 1992 12:36 | 136 |
| From: [email protected] (Gisle Hannemyr)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Whale Research
Date: 14 Aug 92 22:54:54 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Gisle Hannemyr)
Organization: [email protected]
In article <[email protected]>, richard torres writes:
|> Please explain what the norwegian scientists are researching
|> on about whales.
I believe the main topics for research is the number of whales, what
they eat, and their reproduction rate. You don't have to kill whales
to count them, but unfortunately you need to do that to find out what
is in their stomachs, and how many whale cows are pregnant. In
addition, there is some public interest in Norway and abroad in hard
data about the killing/hunting methods themselves (what is time elapsed
from the hit until the animal is dead, what proportion of the animals
escape after being wounded, etc.).
|> Is it really necessary to slay more than a hundred whales?
The anti-whaling organizations main argument against some of the
statistical data that support whaling is that this data is unreliable
because the number of whales in the sample is too few to make the data
statistically significant.
|> Why are the norwegian scientists doing the research alone?
|> I'm sure other nations would like to do research about whales as
|> well. Imagine if they start doing their own slaying.
|> Any research about whales must be done internationally so that
|> scientists from different countries can share their results and
|> monitor each [other?].
The Norwegian whaling research is done with the approval of, and under
the auspices and control of the IWC (International Whaling Commission),
of which all whaling nations (and a large number of non-whaling costal
nations) are member. The results from this year's Norwegian research
will be shared internationally with other scientists both through the
IWC and standard scientific channels. There are IWC approved inspectors
aboard all Norwegian whaling boats to monitor the activities.
According to the charter signed by all IWC member nations, all whaling
activites must be approved by the IWC. If other nations want to do
their own "slaying", I am certain that the IWC would coordinate their
research with the Norwegian project (or call for an international
project). They have not indicated that they want to do so, and I can
only assume that are happy to let Norway take the brunt of the current
international outrage on the killing of sea mammals
|> This way less whales will be unnecessarily be slaughtered.
As the meat resulting from this years research hunt will be available
in the shops and used for human consumption. Hence, no whales are
unnecessarily slaughtered :-) .
I suspect that you will feel provoked by the sentence above and the
following smiley. You may even elect to interprete it as evidence that
this year's research hunt is just commercial hunting in disguise. I can
assure that this is not the case. The number of whales that the ships
are permitted to kill this year is about 1/15th of what would make
sense commercially and the sale of the meat will not pay for the fixed
costs involved in the hunt. But the researchers felt it would be an
abomination to destroy good meat fit for human consumption.
To give you a less provoking answer: The number of whales that is to be
killed for research purposes this years is set by the scientists of the
IWC, not by the Norwegians alone. I trust the integrity of the IWC
scientists to not set the number higher than absolutely necessary for
scientific purposes. However -- Norway has every intention of starting
up commercial whaling of non-endangered species of whale again. When
we do, it will presented as such, and not under the guise of
"research".
--
Disclaimer: My employer seldom even LISTENS to my opinion.
- gisle hannemyr (Norsk Regnesentral)
OSI: C=no;PRMD=uninett;O=nr;S=Hannemyr;G=Gisle (X.400 SA format)
[email protected] (RFC-822 format)
Inet: [email protected]
UUCP: ...!mcsun!ifi!gisle
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [email protected] (Svein-Ivar Lillehaug)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Whale Research
Date: 15 Aug 92 00:46:31 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Tromsoe
Some more info to add to Gisle's posting
The scientific hunting of minke whales is just one small piece of the
work that is done in order to build a good model on what is going on in
the seas. Different kinds of information are collected about the fish,
the sea animals, the sea plants, the sea and so on. Man tries to figure
out (about the fish and the animals) where they are "borned", how fast
they grow, what they eat and where they eat, where they live, where
they swim, when-where and how many babies, where and how much poison
from the humans, who are they eaten by, how old do they get, and so
on.........
Based on this information man can build models to understand what is
going on in the sea system, and this Richard and all the others of you,
is something that we need to know if we still intend to use the sea as
a food reserve. The harvesting can be controlled and regulated
according to models which are updated all the time. In this way we can
still manage to keep current endaged species and protect others and, at
the same time, get our food out of the sea harvesting.
As being a big eater in a big volume at the top of the chain, the minke
whale can not be excluded from this model. Especially not when that
same animal represents a big food reserve
In addition to what Gisle said, the hunting was done in areas that were
decided in advance. This in order to compare what they eat in the
different aereas with what type of fish and other things (based on info
from fishing) you can find in the same aereas. And, maybe I should not
mention it, but..., some are also doing research on the meat to check
out vitamins, proteins, fat, "health oil" and so on for
"ernaeringsmessige" questions. Actually, minke whale meat is way more
healthy to eat than for example cow meat.
And finally, some are also keeping track of the minke whales movement
by radio transmitters. Together with counting of them, this is another
example of pieces out of the Norwegian research on the minke whale,
which again is just one piece out of a big program: THE SEA!
Svein-Ivar
-a whale a day, keeps the doctor away
|
| 109.39 | A letter from out-going President Bush | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon Dec 28 1992 09:46 | 40 |
| From: [email protected] (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.news.hot.bush,clari.tw.environment,clari.news.europe,
clari.biz.products
Subject: Bush warns Norway on whale killing
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 11:24:56 PST
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- President Bush said Wednesday that Norway's
decision to disregard a moratorium on commercial whaling will undermine
conservation efforts by the International Whaling Commission.
"I want to ensure that the IWC has the full support of the United
States in carrying out its responsibility to conserve the great natural
resources represented by whale stocks," Bush wrote in a letter to
Congress.
The president said he is not prepared to impose retaliatory
sanctions, but will make sure his "concerns are communicated to the
highest levels of the Norwegian government."
Bush, who leaves office Jan. 20, said he was requesting further talks
between Norway and the IWC, which includes Norway as a member.
"I hope that our actions will encourage all members of the IWC to
cooperate," he said.
Commerce Secretary Barbara Hackman Franklin certified in an Oct. 26
letter that Norway has conducted whaling activities that undermine the
IWC's conservation program.
Franklin's certification was based on Norway issuing permits to
Norwegian fishermen for the killing of North Atlantic minke whales for
research purposes.
The IWC said at its fall meeting that Norway did not meet its
criteria for research, such as establishing that the work had a critical
nature.
Since then, 95 minke whales have been taken by Norwegian fishermen,
Bush said in his letter.
"I am also greatly concerned about the annoucement made by the
government of Norway...that Norway would resume commercial whaling in
1993, irrespective of the decision by the IWC," he said.
"The moratorium on commercial whaling adopted by the IWC is observed
by the entire community of nations, including those that are not members
of the IWC," the president said.
"If Norway, a founding member of the IWC, were to disregard the
moratorium, it would very likely lead to grave consequences for the
effectiveness of the IWC conservation program," he said.
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| 109.40 | Norway: new guidelines for whalers | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon May 03 1993 11:51 | 32 |
| From: [email protected] (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.europe,
clari.news.interest.animals,clari.tw.environment
Subject: Norway plans new guidelines on whale kills
Date: Sun, 2 May 93 20:29:01 PDT
KYOTO, Japan (UPI) -- Norway will follow new guidelines to reduce the
time taken to kill whales when it resumes commercial whaling to ward off
criticism from antiwhaling nations, a government official said Sunday.
Norwegian whalers will not be allowed to shoot or fire harpoons
unless they are within 30 yards of a whale, Jan Arvesen, special adviser
on polar affairs with the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, told the Kyodo
News Service.
The new rule will shorten the time it takes the whale to die, Arvesen
said.
"Another thing is that they (whalers) are not supposed to fire from
behind or up front," Arvesen told Kyodo. "They are supposed to aim
from the side to ensure accuracy and that the harpoon will really hit
the whale."
Arvesen, in Kyoto to attend the annual general meeting of the
International Whaling Commission May 10-14, said whalers were previously
allowed to fire harpoons at whales from 60 yards from any direction.
Britain, France and the United States have criticized current whale
killing methods, contending the time-consuming process inflicts too much
pain. A resolution was adopted at last year's IWC meeting in Glasow,
Scotland, calling for improvement in the rules governing killing whales.
Norway announced in April it will hunt a limited number of minke
whales for the second straight year from the North Atlantic and Barents
Sea to study the feasibility of resuming commercial whaling in those
areas.
Arvesen also disclosed Oslo's intention of allowing international
observers aboard 90 percent of its whaling ships.
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| 109.41 | Advice for anti-whaling groups | TLE::SAVAGE | | Wed May 19 1993 12:20 | 32 |
| Newsgroups: talk.environment,soc.culture.nordic
From: [email protected] (Birger Andresen)
Subject: Whaling, quota
Sender: [email protected] (NetNews Administrator)
Organization: SINTEF Metallurgy, Norway
Date: Wed, 19 May 93 07:35:27 GMT
Yesterday the Norwegian Government announced that the quota for the
commercial hunt of Minke Whales for 1993 will be 160 animals. The total
quota for 1993 will then add up to 296 Minke Whales (of which 136 is
accounted for in the scientific program). The commercial hunt will
start in a couple of weeks, so you Greenpeace freaks will have to order
your tickets to Norway straight away.... but don't expect to see any
large whaling wessels like them shown in connection with Norwegian
whaling on some TV-channels abroad lately. Those were ships used
decades ago for hunting Blue Whales or other large whales, and are not
very handy for Minke whaling.
--
Regards,
Birger Andresen
*********************************************************
* So you're out of work and bored ?!.....
*
* Well, why don't you join the anti-whaling campaign of
* Greenpeace and get a free luxurious cruise on one of
* their expensive high tech ships, mostly sponsored by
* well-meaning people that have never seen a whale from
* their kitchen window and thus assume it to be almost
* extinct no matter what the scientists claim.
*********************************************************
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| 109.42 | Now Clinton threatens sanctions | TLE::SAVAGE | | Tue Oct 05 1993 12:02 | 18 |
| From: [email protected] (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.usa,clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.europe
Subject: Clinton threatens Norway with sanctions
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 93 13:25:31 PDT
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The United States on Monday threatened to impose
sanctions against Norwegian products, including its seafood products, if
Norway continues commercial whaling in defiance of an international ban.
In a message to Congress, President Bill Clinton said he believes
"Norway's action is serious enough to justify sanctions" as prescribed
under International Whaling Commission restrictions.
"Therefore, I have directed that a list of potential sanctions,
including a list of Norwegian seafood products that could be the subject
of import prohibitions be developed," he said.
He said he would delay implementation of the sanctions until the
United States has exhausted "all good faith efforts to persuade Norway
to follow agreed conservation measures."
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| 109.43 | Whalewatching big business in northern Norway | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon Oct 11 1993 15:15 | 34 |
| Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: [email protected] (Lars Hagen )
Subject: Whale Safaris
Sender: [email protected] (Mr Usenet)
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 20:31:25 GMT
For your reading pleasure from Ruth Sylte.
Enjoy,
- Lars
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is taken from NORINFORM in late fall 1992:
Hunting whales with cameras has become big business in north
Norway. This year, over 6,500 tourists have sailed from the
island of Andoeya on whale-watching safaris. Hvalsafari A/S
of Andenes, the company that organises the trips,
transported 140 boatloads of tourists out to the whale
sighting grounds this summer. Though mostly from Germany,
Sweden and Norway, whale-watchers come from over 30
countries. For the tourists, the main attraction is the
sperm whale, which can reach a length of 18 meters. Other
species include killer, minke, pilo, common rorqual and even
humpback whales. The water around Andoeya are rich in
suitable food for whales. A whale safari from Andenes is
almost guaranteed to result in sighting, says Atle Hagtun of
Hvalsafari A/S. "Only 10-12 trips were unsuccessful this
year, but Prince Phillip was on one of them."
- Ruth-Marie Sylte
[email protected]
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| 109.44 | How effective is Greenpeace's boycott? | TLE::SAVAGE | | Thu Feb 24 1994 15:28 | 51 |
| From: [email protected] (AP)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.western,clari.tw.environment,
clari.biz.economy.world
Subject: Whaling Boycott: Did It Work?
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 11:20:40 PST
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Norway's decision to resume commercial
whaling last year has cost the country millions in lost exports due
to boycotts, Greenpeace said Wednesday. But the Norwegian Trade
Council denied it.
Greenpeace and other anti-whaling groups called for
international boycotts against Norway, including a boycott of the
Winter Olympics that never materialized.
Greenpeace said Norwegian companies have lost the equivalent of
$60 million since 1992, when the government announced it would
resume licenses for limited commercial hunting of minke whales
after a five-year hiatus.
Lars Wang-Andersen of Norwegian Greenpeace said Norway lost
business due to boycott action by companies such as Burger King
Corp., General Motors, British food retailer Safeway and local
councils in England.
However, Jan Farberg, adviser to the Norwegian Trade Council,
said, "I am not aware of any companies that have lost customers in
Britain. The value of Norwegian exports increased 20 percent last
year."
He said 1993 "was a very good export year. Fish and salmon
exports went very well."
The Greenpeace spokesman did not dispute the increased exports,
but said that "government officials are trying to play down the
effects of the boycott."
The estimate is based on what companies have told Greenpeace or
Norwegian news media reports, Wang-Andersen said.
The value of U.S. Burger King's boycott was estimated at $6
million, Wang-Andersen said.
"But that sum is probably higher since the boycott also
includes Burger King's foreign subsidiaries," he said.
Greenpeace said the boycott would continue until the Norwegian
authorities stop whaling. But just before the Olympics opened in
Lillehammer, Greenpeace said it had decided not to stage any
demonstrations at the Games. No countries boycotted the games.
In 1986 the International Whaling Commission imposed a ban on
minke whaling. Norway never accepted the commercial hunting ban,
and was not legally bound by it. But international pressure and
boycott threats forced a suspension in 1987. Research hunts
continued in order to study the animals' diets, health and
physiology.
Last May, Norwegian whalers resumed hunting the estimated 87,000
minke whales in the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans and sold the
meat for domestic consumption. The quota was set at 160. All but
three were reported killed, including a large proportion of
pregnant females.
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| 109.45 | Ships ready to leave port | TLE::SAVAGE | | Tue Apr 26 1994 11:22 | 50 |
| From: [email protected] (AP)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.northern,clari.living.animals,
clari.news.interest.animals,clari.tw.science,clari.world.europe.western
Subject: Norway Whalers Set For Hunt
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 94 9:30:17 PDT
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Norway's annual research whale hunt begins
next week when four ships sail into the arctic to harpoon 127 minke
whales.
"We won't say exactly when the ships will leave, because of
possible trouble. All we have said is about May 1," said Sidsel
Gronvik of the research program's secretariat in Tromso.
The far more controversial commercial hunt, which Norway resumed
last year after a six-year break, cannot begin until the government
sets quotas. Whalers hope to be allowed to kill 860 minke whales
for profit this year.
Last year, Norway killed 226 minke whales: 157 for profit and 69
for research.
Whaling ships usually leave their ports in secret to avoid
confrontations with protestors.
Opponents of whaling say there is little difference between the
commercial and research hunts, because the meat from both is sold
for human consumption.
Norway temporarily stopped commercial whaling in 1987, even
though it was not legally bound by a ban imposed by the
International Whaling Commission in 1986.
However, it continued to harpoon whales in research hunts that
are not covered by the commercial whaling ban. The decision in 1993
to allow hunters to again harpoon whales for a profit enraged
conservationists and some governments.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ingvard Havnen said Monday that
commercial quotas will not be set until after International Whaling
Commission's May 23-27 meeting in Mexico City.
Norway hopes the IWC will accept a plan for managing commercial
hunts that has been endorsed by the commission's scientists.
The ships chartered for the 1994 scientific hunt did not have to
wait for new quotas because the government granted a total of 382
minke whales for the program in 1992, said Gronvik.
She said this year's research quota would be divided into
spring, summer and autumn seasons. The research hunt allows
scientists to study the whale's health and diet.
Norway claims the roughly 87,000 minke whales off its coast are
not endangered and that the hunt is important to the economies of
some coastal communities.
Jan Odin Olavsen, of the Norwegian Whale Hunters Association,
said 35 ships, compared to 28 last year, may join the commercial
hunt in June if quotas are big enough.
"We hope the quota will be based on estimates of what the stock
can sustain, which would be about 860," he said by telephone from
the Lofoten Islands, a whaling center off north Norway.
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| 109.46 | Norway deals with activist groups | TLE::SAVAGE | | Tue Aug 02 1994 12:33 | 82 |
| NORWAY PLANS TO DEPORT 14 ANTI-WHALING ACTIVISTS
By Alister Doyle
OSLO, July 22 (Reuter) - Norway plans to deport 14
Greenpeace activists who were arrested in an anti-whaling
protest outside the Foreign Ministry on Friday, police said.
``They will be sent abroad as soon as possible,'' police
spokewoman Marit Bakkevig said.
She said the activists had refused to pay fines of 2,500
crowns ($360) each after the protest, during which
environmentalists wearing anti-whaling T-shirts chained
themselves to a wall outside the ministry in central Oslo.
Norwegian law allowed police to send foreigners out of the
country when they failed to pay fines, she said. Police arrested
14 activists -- from Germany, Britain, Italy, Sweden and the
Netherlands.
``This is a total over-reaction,'' said Greenpeace
spokeswoman Desley Mather.
A Swedish activist among the detainees had already been put
in a car bound for the Swedish border. Mather said that
Greenpeace had sent a lawyer and other representatives to Oslo
police to try to overturn the deportations.
Norway resumed commercial hunts of minke whales last year in
defiance of a 1985 international moratorium by the International
Whaling Commission.
Oslo says stocks have recovered to 86,700 in the northeast
Atlantic and has set a quota of 301 whales for this season.
Opponents of whaling say stocks may be far lower and that it is
barbaric to use exploding grenades to harpoon the huge mammals.
Earlier on Friday, the environmentalists set up a concrete
wall about 2.5 metres high and four metres long emblazoned
``Closed due to Whaling,'' partly blocking access to the
building. The wall had been unloaded from a truck by crane.
Police cut loose seven activists who chained themselves to
the top of the wall and then knocked it down with a
sledgehammer. Two other Greenpeace members scaled the foreign
ministry building and hung up a banner: ``Norway Stop Whaling.''
Police in west Norway seized a Greenpeace vessel, the
Sirius, for a second time this year on Wednesday after the
organisation tried to stop a whaling vessel in the North Sea
from firing harpoons. Four activists were fined.
Another environmental group, Sea Shepherd, said on Friday it
was giving up plans to sail to Norway from Scotland, where its
vessel Whales Forever has been undergoing repairs after a
collision with a Norwegian coastguard vessel.
------------------------------
NORWAY COASTGUARDS SEIZE SECOND GREENPEACE VESSEL
OSLO, July 23 (Reuter) - Norway's coastguard said it seized
a second Greenpeace vessel in the North Sea on Saturday after an
anti-whaling protest.
The environmentalist group's vessel Solo was put under tow
and would be brought to the west Norwegian port of Egersund
after coastguard officers boarded it early on Saturday.
The Greenpeace vessel Sirius was similarly detained on
Wednesday for getting in the way of a whaling boat, the Senet,
when it was trying to harpoon minke whales. The Sirius is still
being held in port.
``The Solo illegally hindered whale hunts,'' a coastguard
statement said. The vessel would be handed to the police. It
said one coastguard member was thrown overboard during the
boarding of the Solo. Each Greenpeace vessel has about 25 crew.
Greenpeace says the coastguard has no right to board its
vessels in international waters to stop its protests against
Norway's resumption of commercial whaling last year in defiance
of a 1985 global moratorium by the International Whaling
Commission.
Norway says that stocks of minke whales, eaten as steaks and
sausages, are 86,700 in the northeast Atlantic and can withstand
small catches.
Norway has set a quota of 301 whales for this year.
Greenpeace says stocks may be far lower.
The organisation said that police deported one Swedish
activist on Friday among 14 arrested after a protest outside the
Norwegian Foreign Ministry.
But police gave up a plan to deport the other 13 after
Greenpeace guaranteed it would take responsibility for paying
for them in Norway -- the arrested activists had originally said
they had no money.
Police imposed fines of 2,500 crowns ($369) on each
activist. The fines have yet to be paid and the environmental
group said it was appealing.
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| 109.47 | Adjustment in population estimate | TLE::SAVAGE | | Fri Jun 09 1995 14:24 | 39 |
| From: [email protected] (Simen Gaure)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.ec,soc.culture.nordic,eunet.politics
Subject: Re: Norwegian Whaling
Date: Fri, 09 Jun 1995 15:39:41 +0100
Organization: University of Oslo
(Translated by Birger Andresen)
According to the NTB ("the Norwegian version of Reuter")
April 28, 1995 (main points only) :
The IWC working group that was given mandate to review the stock
estimation procedure for minke whales has proposed a reduction in the
stock estimate for the North-Atlantic minke whales from the current
number of 86 700 animals to 69 600 animals.
Consequently, the Norwegian government has reduced the quota for 1995
from 301 animals to 232 animals.
The reason for this reduction is the detection of errors in the
computer program used for the stock estimation.
"A quota of 232 will not pose any threat to the stock provided that the
stock estimate of 69 600 animals is correct. It is well within the
Revised Management Procedure of the IWC, but the last adjustment
illustrates the need for a more thorough examination of the basis for
the stock estimation. At least two independent groups of scientists
should examine the material," says Justin Cooke.
Cooke is sceptical to the new stock estimate, and claims that it
according to his own calculations should have been reduced to 53 000
animals. He promises a critical review at the upcoming IWC meeting in
May.
{Justin Cooke is the scientist who lead the group that designed the
algorithm for, among other things, computing quotas. He is strongly
against whaling and is paid by anti-whaling organizations.}
-- Simen Gaure, Department of Mathematics, University of Oslo
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