WHALERS OPEN FIRE AT GREENPEACE BOAT AS NORWEGIAN COAST GUARD WATCHES

12 July 1999

Oslo -- At 9.44 this morning, the Norwegian whaling vessel Kato located in the North Sea, shot at a Greenpeace inflatable with a rifle. Luckily, no one was injured but the bullet punctured the pontoon of the inflatable. At the time of the shooting, the Greenpeace inflatable was engaged in a peaceful protest against Norwegian whaling. The vessel Kato had just harpooned a whale when they fired the shot at the Greenpeace inflatable. The two Norwegian Coast Guard ships on location watched passively as the inflatable was hit by the bullet.

"It is quite frightening to know that the Norwegian Coast Guard are more concerned with protecting Norwegian whaling than with human life", says Frode Pleym, Norwegian whale campaigner. "The Coast Guard has a duty to enforce the law equally, not to protect whaling interests."

While the Coast Guard did not take any action against the boat firing at Greenpeace activists, it did arrest the Greenpeace ship MV Sirius. The Sirius is now being towed to Stavanger by the Norwegian Coast Guard vessel Nornen. This is the second Greenpeace action against whaling this summer; Last month Greenpeace activist Mark Hardingham was seriously injured when a Coast Guard inflatable rammed into a Greenpeace inflatable.

"The whalers are now spreading rumors that our activists tried to cut a harpoon line but this is simply not true" said Pleym. The environmental group has been peacefully protesting Norwegian whaling activities that take place annually since 1993, despite the International Whaling Commission's moratorium forbidding it and despite the collapse of the whale meat market in Norway. In addition to the moratorium by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), Norway is acting in breach of art. 65 of the Law of the Sea Convention which requires all countries to cooperate with the IWC for the conservation of whales.

Greenpeace has documented that the two biggest whale meat storage facilities in Norway are filled with blubber and whale meat, some boxes dating back to 1986. The fact that whale meat consumption is at an all time low has caused the whalers to put pressure on the Norwegian Government to allow the export of whale products, despite the international trade ban by CITES (1).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
- Frode Pleym, Whale Campaigner Greenpeace Nordic, +47 95 80 49 50 (mob)
- Mats Holmberg, Press Officer Greenpeace Nordic +46 8 702 70 74, +46 70 772 64 10 (mob)
- Holger Roenitz, Press Officer Greenpeace International + 31 20 5249 545 or 31 653 50 47 01 (mob)