21 April, 2006

THE UK yesterday (Thursday) asked Norway to end its program of lethal whaling activities.

The UK government, together with those of 11 other countries, has made a formal diplomatic representation to the Norwegian government, urging it to stop its commercial whaling programme.

The formal written statement, or demarche, was presented to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday by the British Charge d'Affaires in Oslo on behalf of the UK, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, The Czech Republic, France, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and Spain.

The delivery of the demarche was timed to take place soon after the beginning of the new Norwegian whaling season on 1 April.

At the end of 2005, the Norwegian government announced a record increase in the number of North Atlantic minke whales they plan to take this year, up from 796 to 1052.

UK fisheries minister Ben Bradshaw said: "Any announcement of an increase in the 2006 quota is premature and not based upon the best scientific advice. It is disappointing that the Norwegian government are putting pressure on their scientists to justify the wide scale destruction of this species.

"The UK and many other countries remain strongly opposed to Norway's existing and unnecessary lethal whaling activities, and we urge Norway to stop them.

"We shall continue to register our disapproval of all these whaling activities, which undermine the moratorium on commercial whaling, which has been operational since 1986."

The Norwegian government's decision in respect of the whaling quota for 2006 breaks further new ground in extending the area of whaling operations outside Norway's Exclusive Economic Zone into international waters.

Norway has based the increase to its self awarded quota on its independent modifications to the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) Revised Management Procedure (RMP) (a scientifically rigorous method of determining catch limits for any future whaling). The basis for this modification has not been put before the IWC's Scientific Committee for evaluation and cannot in any case be evaluated until the committee meets in May 2006.

Norway is the only member of the IWC that carries out commercial whaling. It does so legally having entered a formal objection at the time the decision to adopt a moratorium on commercial whaling within the IWC was made in 1982. Most of the whale meat is sold commercially in Norway although it has recently exported to both Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

Most of the blubber is dumped as there is little consumer demand and storage costs are high. Japan has refused to accept any Norwegian whale blubber because of concerns about high contaminant levels (mainly heavy metals and PCBs).

In 2005, Norway killed 639 minke whales. This represented an increase on the previous year because whalers failed to catch their allotted quota because of bad weather.

Norway has started using electronic surveillance to monitor the way in which whales are killed, a position the UK government is unhappy with. They believe the "blue box" electronic system will not record important aspects of the slaughter, such as how long it takes to die, the location of the harpoon strike, or secondary killing methods used, which raise serious ethical concerns for the humane killing of whales.

The UK has consistently made clear the importance it attaches to improving the methods used to kill whales. It believes existing methods used to kill whales involve an unacceptable degree of suffering and considers that those countries that insist on whaling have a moral obligation to improve the methods they use to kill whales, to minimise stress and suffering.