MOLDE, NORWAY – The fish markets along the Fanne fjord in this western Norwegian town boast magnificent, two-foot-long farm-raised salmon, fillets of fresh cod, and haddock.

And then there’s what looks like an extra lean cut of beef lying on the fishmongers’ ice. It’s minke whale, ready for the broiler or barbecue.

While the US and many other nations condemn whaling, Norway is the one country in the world that continues to hunt them on a commercial basis. Last year, Norway killed more than 600 minkes, most of which were consumed within the country.

And after a 14-year hiatus, Iceland last month resumed whaling for “scientific purposes,” sending its whalers out this year to harvest 38 of the 20- to 35-foot-long minkes off its near-Arctic shores.

Iceland’s decision has sparked anew the global controversy over hunting the huge cetaceans. Britain led an international protest by 23 countries last week condemning Iceland’s harvesting plans as “unjustified and unnecessary” and a violation of the spirit of a moratorium agreed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in June.

Commercial hunting of whales has been outlawed since 1986, because many of the great whale species are endangered. Iceland, which stopped whaling then under international pressure, now says it must control whales to protect fish stocks and fishermen’s livelihood. Reykjavik had announced its intention just before the IWC’s June annual meeting. There, a resolution calling for a “strengthening of the conservation agenda” passed by a 25 to 20 vote, deepening the divide between whaling and non-whaling nations.

Japan, which kills nearly 700 minkes for “scientific” purposes each year, denounced the resolution and threatened to leave the IWC, charging that the body had strayed from its original mission of creating conditions to allow the sustainable harvest of whales.

Japanese ships take hundreds of whales each year, ostensibly to check on the creatures’ health. Critics call this commercial whaling in disguise. After research is done, the whale meat is transported for consumption, which is required by IWC rules.

Antiwhaling organizations argue that whale hunting is an antiquated barbaric practice. “There is absolutely no way to kill a whale humanely, and we believe that on that basis alone, it’s time to say goodbye to whaling,” says Chris Tuite of the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Yarmouthport, Mass.

Mr. Tuite notes that with the IWC’s 1986 ban on most forms of whaling, whale hunting has been increasingly replaced by whale watching - an industry he estimates to be worth more than $1 billion a year worldwide.

But here in Norway, where whales have been hunted for thousands of years, even environmental groups support whaling.

“As long as you can harvest the surplus without reducing the stocks significantly, we think whaling is a good thing,” says Marius Holm of the Bellona Foundation in Oslo, one of Norway’s most influential environmental groups.

“From an animal-rights perspective, what’s the difference between eating whale meat and beef?” asks Rune Frovik, director of the High North Alliance, a pro-whaling group based in the far northern fishing village of Reine. “With agriculture, you’re destroying the habitat for wild animals and keeping animals in small cages from the time they are born, so they have never experienced freedom.” Whales, by contrast, live wild in the sea until the day they are harvested, he notes.

Norway argues that its commercial hunts are legal because it objected to the 1986 ban.

Many Norwegians say that the antiwhaling movement in other industrialized countries is based on emotion, rather than scientific fact. “Most people when they get food they go to the supermarket and find it wrapped up in plastic, they don’t see the kill,” says Halvard Johansen, deputy director general of Norway’s Ministry of Fisheries. “Then they see pictures of a whale being slaughtered and it’s an unusual and shocking sight for them.”

Proponents say there is ample evidence that Norway’s whale harvest will do no long-term damage to the minke population.

Norway, Iceland, and Japan would all like to hunt other species, like sei, humpback, and fin whales, if their populations can eventually be shown to have recovered from past whaling.

Critics note that the industry has a poor conservation record. Many species including blue, fin, right, sperm, and humpback whales were hunted to the verge of extinction during the 19th and 20th centuries, and Norway and Japan played central roles in the destruction of Antarctica’s once bountiful whale populations.

Nor is the science of whale management up to snuff, says Kate O’Connell, US representative of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, based in London, who has attended IWC meetings for nearly 20 years. “Whales are difficult to study and every time we think we understand a particular aspect of their lives we find out 10 or 15 years later that we were wrong about it,” she says.

This summer the journal Science published news of a study suggesting that the prewhaling populations of North Atlantic humpback, fin, and minke whales were far larger than previously thought. The study, based on genetic analysis, suggested that whale populations will not return to exploitable levels for many decades.

Other scientists question the accuracy of the study. Nils Oien, a scientist at the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway, says there is considerable uncertainty in the study’s results, and defends Norway’s minke quotas.

 

Welcome to the Whale Encyclopedia, here you have a chance to get a glimt of the many different whales that are swimming around in our oceans. Here you can see the “small” whales (0,22 ton) and the big whales (over a 100 tons).

2.3m long; weighs 0.22 tons

Dall’s Porpoise are found only in the North Pacific. The Government of Japan, rather than the IWC, manages this species. Japan strictly regulates the harpoon hunt for Dall’s porpoise.

 

4.7m long; weighs 1.26 tons

This species ranges widely in the world’s warmer tropical waters. There are two types, the southern form short-finned pilot whale (4.7m long; weighs 1.26 tons) and the northern form short-finned pilot whale ( 6.5m long; weighs 3.15 tons). The IWC does not manage this species. The Japanese government strictly regulates the small-type whaling and drive fisheries for this species.

 

8m long; weighs 8 tons

Minke whales range widely from the Arctic and the Antarctic to tropical waters. Before the 1970s, minke whales were not considered an important species for the whaling industry, but interest in minke whales has increased as a result of the suspension of commercial whaling for other species, such as the fin whale. Currently, because minkes have become more important as a usable resource, Japan conducts research whaling in the western North Pacific and the Antarctic Oceans, catching a sample of approximately 500 animals a year. Norway’s commercial whaling operations also catch about 600 whales a year. The stock remains abundant and stable worldwide.

 

11m long; weighs 11 tons

The Baird’s beaked whale lives only in the North Pacific, but it ranges from tropical through frigid zones. Coastal whaling for Baird’s Beaked whale began in 1612 in Chiba, Japan. The IWC does not manage this species. The Japanese government permits, under strict supervision, a small-type whaling total annual catch of 62 animals in the coastal whaling ports of Wada, Ayukawa, Abashiri, and Hakodate.

 

12.9m long; weighs 0.3 tons

Humpback whales are found in all oceans from the Arctic to Antarctic. American whaling vessels hunted these whales, and the stock was depleted in the western North Pacific in the latter half of the 19th century. Whalers then moved to the North Pacific and to the Southern hemisphere, catching more than 100,000 humpbacks in the first forty years of the twentieth century. The IWC banned commercial whaling for this species in 1966. An annual catch quota of two whales is permitted as aboriginal subsistence whaling for St. Vincent Island in the West Indies.

 

13m long; weighs 14 tons

Gray whales were found in the North Atlantic until the 18th century, but currently, they live only in the North Pacific. In the latter part of the 19th century, 11,000 gray whales were caught off the coasts of California and Mexico. About 1,000 were caught under pelagic whaling in the first half of the twentieth century, but gray whales were given full international protection in 1946. Currently, residents of Siberia are allowed an annual catch of 135 gray whales and the Makah tribe of the U.S. an annual catch of five a year; both quotas are for aboriginal subsistence whaling. The population of gray whales has recovered to above its initial stock size. The U.S. has removed gray whales from the endangered species list.

 

15m long; weighs 50 tons

Right whales have lived in all oceans at different times. This is the first large-sized whale that was targeted for whaling. Right whales were caught in early 10th century in Japan’s coastal waters, and were hunted in Bay of Biscay off Spain and France from as early as the 9th century. With the advent of pelagic whaling, over 100,000 whales were caught during the 19th century, and the population was severely depleted in the early 20th century. Whaling for right whales was banned in 1935.

 

13.7m long; weighs 18.5 tons

These whales range in all oceans from tropical to warm waters and have been caught since ancient times near Japan. Until the 1950s, they were thought to be sei whales. In the North Pacific, Japan, Russia, Korea, and Taiwan hunted these whales commercially, but because they took only a relatively small number, the stock is healthy and stable.

 

15m long; weighs 45 tons

Sperm whales are in all oceans from the equator north and south to the Arctic and Antarctic. The sperm whale has been the whale targeted for large-scale commercial whaling for the longest period-since the 17th century. The sperm whale was one of the major species the Americans sought during the 18th and 19th centuries. The whale in the novel, Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, is a sperm whale. Whalers prized the oil contained in the sperm whale’s blubber and head for use in industry and for illumination. The stocks of sperm whales are quite healthy.

 

18m long; weighs 60 tons

Bowhead whales are found only in the Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. They are slow swimmers and are great sources of oil and baleen. Bowheads were hunted by European and North American whalers over several centuries-to the extent that in the 19th century, they almost became extinct. Despite the fact that the population is quite low, the Inuit of Alaska are permitted an annual catch of 54 whales under aboriginal subsistence whaling. A small number are subsistence-hunted in Canada and Russia as well.

 

21m long; weighs 50 tons

Fin whales are wide-ranging in both hemispheres, from subtropical regions to Arctic and Antarctic waters. Modern whalers targeted fin whales all over the world. Whaling for fin whales is now only permitted in Greenland as aboriginal subsistence whaling.

 

25m long; weighs 100 tons

Blue whales may be found in all oceans of the world in both hemispheres. With the invention of exploding harpoon guns mounted on steam- and diesel-powered vessels in the latter half of the 19th century, blue whales were hunted aggressively in all seas. These whales produced the largest amount of oil per whale. However, in 1966, IWC banned, worldwide, the catching of blue whales. In about one century, a total of approximately 300,000 whales were taken, and the stocks declined dramatically. Blue whales are the largest animal on earth today.

 

Illustration/reference–”Osakana Tsushin Gyo!” Women’s Forum for Fish (WFF)http://www.seaworld.co.jp/~gyo