Whaling quota lower for 2009

Norway has announced a lower whaling quota for 2009. Norway authorized its whalers to harpoon 885 minke whales, a quota sharply down from previous years in what animal rights activists saw as a sign of consumers’ growing disinterest for whale meat.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Minke whale

Norway is one of the only nations that still hunts whales commercially, although they haven’t met their quota in years due to the difficulty involved in catching minke whales. Environmentalists are still angry, however, that Norway endorses whaling at all. Greenpeace released a statement that the annual hunt is pointless and should simply be stopped.

Although Norwegians eat the whale’s meat, there is no modern use for blubber, so all of that fat gets dumped. Greenpeace also noted that “this summer, the whalers were called home in the middle of the season due to low demand. The government’s adherence to whaling is pure symbolic politics.”