Norwegian Whaling Essay -- Whaling Conservation Hunting Whales Essays

Norwegian Whaling Modern commercial whaling is continuously being over-exploited as whaling companies strive to maximize their profits despite international protest and a ban by the International Commission. Many various species of whales have been extinct, and the relatively few whales that remain are extremely vulnerable, and the factors that led to their over-exploitation in the past have not changed. Norway, one of the several countries involved in illegal whaling, has again refused to accept the international moratorium on whaling and has announced that its catch quotas for whales have risen. In 1995 Norwegian whales caught 217 whales out of a quota of 232. In 1996 the quota was 425. Now, on May 27, 1997 the whaling season will begin, and this year’s quota is increasing to some 700-800 whales. The rise is highly questionable especially due to the fact that 50 tons of whale meat from last year had to be frozen and put into storage due to the lack of demand. How many whales will be massacre this year just to be frozen? Recently in April, a Norwegian smuggler was caught in Japan trying to smuggle six tons of whale meat disguised as mackerel. Later it was discovered that the consignment was part of a conspiracy to smuggle a total of 60 tons of meat to Japan. The sale of whale meat can be a very lucrative net profit, considering that whaling companies make $10,000 for each whale captured. Japan is another country that exploits whaling for what they call "scientific analysis". However, the carcasses from this whale hunt are distributed to wholesalers and restaurants after this research is done on the whale. Japan remains the world’s largest consumer of whale meat, supplied in part by black market trade in species of mink... ...Norway, Japan, Iceland, and perhaps other unknown countries disregard all laws that protect whales from this world wide massacre. Fortunately, Greenpeace has been influential in creating a whale sanctuary in Antarctica and The International Whaling Commission has achieved a world wild moratorium on commercial whaling. However, we need to enforce these international laws more strictly, to prevent illegal killing and smuggling of whale meat for a business man’s moneymaking profit. Even though strict reinforcement may not cease the massacre completely, at least some whales will be saved and smugglers will be caught. REFERENCES 1. http://www.greenpeace.org/~comms/cbiowhales.htm 2. http://envirolink.org/archives/seashep/0166.html 3. whe william@flo.org 4. http://www1.wheellock.edu/archives/vmsvax/0017 5. http://ww.glen.co.uk/wdcs/norway.html