Greenland wins back right to kill humpback whales

Greenland has won back the right to hunt humpback whales for the first time in a quarter-century after it threatened to leave the world's top whaling body if other nations reject its ancestral traditions.

"We cannot wait any longer," Ane Hansen, Greenland's Minister for Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture, said just before the consensus vote by the 88 nations of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Morocco on Friday.

"Greenlanders are whale eaters but our subsistence needs have been cut down and cut down," Hansen said.

Greenland's Inuit hunted humpbacks for 4,000 years until Europeans killing the giant mammals for their oil pushed the animals to the brink of extinction in the last century.

The Inuit now hunt limited numbers of fin and bowhead whales for local consumption under controlled licenses. The government says the meat is sold in local open air markets and the proceeds distributed among the boat crews.

It says the revenue is vital to the population of the world's biggest island, which has few sources of income besides seafood exports and a subsidy from former colonizer Denmark and is blanketed in ice for most of the year.

Some IWC delegates said the argument that Greenlanders needs to hunt whales to survive was spurious as they enjoy one of the highest average household incomes in the world.

Whaling opponents say Greenland's whale hunt is big business, the meat sold in supermarkets for ten times the price in traditional markets and whale steaks served in luxury hotels.

"Greenland must withdraw its humpback quota request until it can demonstrate that all currently available whale meat is used to meet genuine subsistence needs," the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said in a statement before the vote.

IWC scientists say that catching 9 humpback whales per year, as Greenland was allowed, would not affect a population that has recovered since a moratorium on commercial whaling began in 1986.

But some Latin American states objected to Greenland's request, saying their income from whale watching for tourists would suffer if fewer humpbacks return to their waters after their annual Arctic migration.

They also want pro-whaling nations to stop blocking a plan for a whaling-free zone in the south Atlantic.

Greenland's request went through thanks to a last-minute compromise proposal by the European Union to curb Greenland's quota for hunting fin whales.

Sources:
Reuters, "Greenland wins back right to kill humpback whales", accessed June 28, 2010

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Call Off the Harpoons! Help us mobilize America to stop an international deal that would legalize the killing of whales for profit. Let’s end commercial whaling once and for all! I’m sure you’re appalled, as I am, that the Obama Administration has been spearheading negotiations for an international deal that would legalize commercial whaling -- the killing of whales for profit. We need your donation right now to help mobilize America and demand that the White House oppose any deal that would legalize the return of commercial whaling -- and call off the harpoons once and for all. Time is short. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) will be meeting next month to vote on this whale-killing deal. In the weeks ahead, we must raise a powerful outcry that the Obama Administration will be unable to ignore. But to do that, we need your help. Administration officials claim that the IWC deal would be a “step forward” for whales because it could rein in Japan, Iceland and Norway, which have killed thousands of whales since 1986 by exploiting loopholes in the whaling ban. But, in fact, this new deal is a giant step backward. It rewards those three nations for years of defying international law. It does their bidding by suspending the whaling ban for 10 years. It opens up the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to whaling. Worst of all, the deal gives moral cover to the absurd notion that we can save whales by killing them -- instead of banning their slaughter. Donate now to stop the slaughter. Today’s methods of killing whales are unspeakably cruel. Whalers fire grenade harpoons that literally explode inside a whale’s body. If that fails, they finish off the whale by riddling it with bullets. Death can take long, painful hours. Prior to the moratorium on commercial whaling, an average of 38,000 whales were killed every year. Under the moratorium, the number of whales killed has been reduced by more than 95% -- down to an average of 1,240 a year. Even that level of whale killings is still too high. The Obama Administration should be throwing its weight behind a plan to end commercial whaling once and for all. But with the IWC vote just weeks away, we need to reach millions of Americans who would adamantly oppose the legalization of whaling if only they knew how imminent it is. With your help, they will soon find out! NRDC is arming the national media and the public with the truth: that this deal will breathe new life into the whaling industry and perpetuate the slaughter of our planet’s most magnificent creatures. Help us generate a message loud and clear to the Obama Administration: Americans will not accept the slaughter of whales for profit. Not now. Not ever. Please make an emergency donation and help “Call Off the Harpoons” today. You can be sure your gift will enable NRDC to defend the environment and wildlife in the most effective way possible. And thank you for your support in the face of this terrible new threat to whales. Sincerely, Frances Beinecke President Natural Resources Defense Council P.S. Hurry, we’re counting on your emergency contribution to help us mobilize America and demand that the Obama Administration help call off the harpoons!