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Sea Sabres
The Battle Isn’t Over
Whaling nations want to restart the hunt
By Kristin Kovner and Emily Flynn
NEWSWEEK
INTERNATIONAL
July 14 issue — Who’d have thought that a 100-foot-long
ocean creature with a heart the size of a small car would be the first cause
celebre for conservationists? In 1982, with 13 major species of whales
teetering on the brink of extinction, the International Whaling Commission
imposed a moratorium on commercial whale hunting. Since then, the Northern
Pacific gray whale has been taken off the endangered-species list—the only
whale to make it back from the brink.
NOW WHALING COUNTRIES are arguing that, with some whales once
again in abundance, the moratorium is no longer necessary. The issue came to a
head in June when the 51 member countries of the IWC met in Berlin. Whaling
countries made their case for increased quotas, and Iceland, which hasn’t hunted
whales for 20 years, said it wants to enter the chase once again. The IWC,
which is dominated by anti-whaling countries, wasn’t having any of that. It
called for more stringent enforcement of existing whaling rules and established
a conservation committee. The Japanese delegation walked out of the meeting. If
saving a creature as popular as whales can be this hard, what hope is there for
tuna?
One reason the issue has heated up is that even small whales like
the minke are commanding bigger prices than ever—as much as $30,000 wholesale.
That amounts to a fair-size business for Norway, which is allowed to catch 711
minkes a year. Since this catch constitutes less than 1 percent of the North
Atlantic fishery’s local population, says Norway, the quota should be
increased. Norway also argues that it’s been a good public citizen: It takes
DNA samples of each whale when it’s caught and when it’s sold in the
marketplace to ensure that whalers comply with national regulations. “Why would
we want to make whales extinct?” asks Bjorn Hugo Bendiksen, vice president of
the Norwegian Whalers’ Union. “This is our livelihood.”
Anti-whaling nations such as the United States,
Mexico and Australia say the risk of endangered whales getting caught—by
accident or otherwise—is just too great. The sizes of many whale populations,
such as sei and sperm whales, are uncertain; others, like the North Atlantic
right, the Western gray and the blue whale, are all still endangered. And
apparently not every country is as conscientious as Norway. Last year a New
Zealand-led DNA analysis of whale meat in Japanese markets found that meat from
endangered sei, humpback, and fin whales was mixed in with meat from the common
minke.
The
heart of the disagreement may be cultural. Whaling has a long history in Japan,
Norway, South Korea and Iceland. In Korea, a sandstone-wall carving from 6000
B.C. depicts a whale hunt. Norway and Iceland’s Viking ancestors were whalers,
and the meat remains a traditional staple. “In wintertime, we keep the blubber
in sour milk for some months, and then eat it and it tastes delicious,” says
Jon Gunnarsson, head of Iceland’s Ocean Harvest, a grass-roots pro-whaling
organization. In a recent Gallup poll, more than 80 percent of Iceland’s
population was in favor of re-establishing whaling. Says Japan’s Masayuki
Komatsu, the IWC’s deputy commissioner: “How would you feel if someone else
from a different culture tells you that you should give up eating turkey for
Thanksgiving?”
Minke Whale
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