7/16 Whalers Fail to Fill Quotas:Casts Doubts on Numbers

[the.greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Original-TO:      World Press (Green2:Green2:Gnl:INET)
Original-TO:   The.Greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org
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WHALERS FAILURE TO FILL QUOTAS CASTS DOUBT ON POPULATION
ESTIMATES
 
Press Release-OSLO, July 16, 1996 (GP) Norwegian whalers
failure to fill their expanded quotas of minke whales in the
North Sea, as the season ended at midnight Monday, cast
serious doubt on the Norwegian population estimates,
Greenpeace and the International Fund for Animal Welfare said
today.
 
 "In 1995 a Norwegian whaling ship with an all-whaler crew
spent a month sighting minke whales and the resulting data
used to estimate a population of 20,294 minkes for the
northern North Sea, " Greenpeace 
 
whale campaigner John Frizell said. "A year later four
Norwegian whaling vessels given quotas of 42 minke whales for
that area were unable to fill them in a season that was
extended a week to last almost two months."
 
The Norwegian government has not yet released catch figures by
area but it is believed that three of the four vessels hunting
in the northern North Sea, between Edinburgh and Shetlands,
ended the hunt with their quotas unfilled despite the season
being extended .
 
"This shows how ludicrous the population estimate is," said
INFAW spokesperson Vassili Papastavrou. "The Norwegians are
claiming that there are over 20,000 minke whales in the
northern North Sea that is a 
population density of over one whale every four square miles
square kilometres). It is very surprising that the whalers
cannot find the whales if there really are this many."
 
An international collaborative survey sponsored by the
European Union, which was more intensive that the Norwegian
survey, estimated about 3,600 whales for the same area in
1994.
 
"The whaling industry says that there are plenty of whales but
their ability to catch them does not bear this out," said
Papastavrou. "Probably they will blame bad luck or bad weather
but I have no doubt that we will discover the present
Norwegian estimate is much too high."
 
Norway raised its quota of minke whales by more than 50
percent -- from 232 last year to 425. The Norwegian whalers
caught 382 of this new quota. 
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT JOHN FRIZELL ON
00-44-1273-476839 

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