|
16July 2002
Norway
exports eight tonne whale appetiser to Iceland
 This
deadly delicacy is not only being exported in spite of an international
ban on the trade of whale products, the contaminated blubber poses
a serious health risk to the Icelandic people. But international
and neighbourly responsibility are not at the forefront of the whalers
minds, the gold rush that will follow is what preoccupies them.
No doubt Icelanders are on the dock right now salivating, waiting
for their whale appetisers. Norway is breaking an international
ban on the export of whale products to send eight tonnes of Minke
whale meat and blubber to these eager dinners.
The Norwegian exporter Ole Mindor Myklebust says it is good to
be back on track. "This is an appetiser for the Icelanders,
and I am confident that they will like it and ask for more,"
he said.
But the Icelandic palate is not the problem. The trade in whale
products is illegal under the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which is designed
to protect species under threat from exploitation.
Norway and Iceland don't think this international treaty applies
to them because they registered a reservation to it. But they still
show up at the CITIES meetings and support efforts to remove whale
species off the banned trading list.
Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993 and since then stockpiles
of the meat and blubber have been piling up in warehouses in Norway,
waiting for the day when they could resume trade.
But after years of working through legal international channels
to resume their export, last year Norway announced it would export
the whale products in spite of the ban. The shipment that will arrive
in Iceland this week is the first, and only the beginning.
The real goal of Norway's whalers is export to Japan where prices
paid for whale meat are several times higher than in Norway. Based
on this year's whaling quota, the meat and blubber could fetch over
US$6 million on the Japanese market for the Norwegian whalers. As
one whaler commented to the press during last year's whaling season
"when export is reopened, who ever has a license to whale will
be sitting on a gold mine."
Besides showing a complete disregard for international treaties,
the Norwegians are endangering their Icelandic allies. Research
conducted earlier this year revealed that whale blubber stored in
Norway is unfit for human consumption. The samples of whale blubber
studied by independent scientists in Germany are contaminated with
various halogenated-organic contaminants such as PCBs, DDT and brominated
flame retardants.
If someone ate a piece of whale blubber the size of their thumb,
they would be dosing themselves many times over the advisory limits
of some of the most toxic compounds known to humans.
This is because whaling is not the only threat to whale populations.
Toxic pollutants accumulate in the fatty tissue of blubber and scientists
are increasingly concerned that a number of these pollutants may
be interfering with whales' hormone function, reproductive success
and development.
Norway's whaling and export program will further jeopardise the
worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling and whale populations.
Pirate whalers will inevitably take advantage of the cover provided
by this trade to smuggle illegal whale meat, from endangered as
well as the more abundant species of whale. If all countries followed
Norway's example with respect to CITES, we would have no international
control over trading in endangered wildlife whatsoever.
The Norwegian whalers have already caught 520 Minke whales during
their summer whaling season, they plan to kill 671 whales before
the end of the season ? more than a hundred over last year?s catch.
Take
action and voice your opposition to Norway's illegal hunt and export
of whale meat and blubber by writing to the Prime Minister of Norway
today.
|
whales | whaling | environmental impacts | solutions | greenpeace & the whales
