Newswise — At a press conference held May 14th, Greenland's Directorate of Fisheries and Hunting announced that it will seek new whaling quotas during the Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to be held in Anchorage, Alaska the last week in May. In a turn of events deeply troubling to conservationists, Greenland has decided to target humpback whales, and said that it has the backing of Denmark to do so. Equally worryingly, Greenland's Members of Parliament seek a commercial whaling quota.
Greenland plans to ask the IWC for an annual quota of 10 humpback whales off West Greenland, in addition to at least 175 minkes and 19 fin whales. A further 12 minkes are being sought for East Greenland, and the quota would remain fixed until 2012 when Greenland indicates that it could seek to kill as many as 30 humpbacks a year. Greeenland's Directorate of Fisheries and Hunting has written to the head of the IWC's Scientific Committee, asking for an evaluation of the summering stocks of West Greenland humpback whales, and possible recommendations on kill quotas.
Whale advocate groups, including WSPA, Humane Society of the United States/International and the Animal Welfare Institute are concerned. Sue Fisher of WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, stated, "There is absolutely no way that Greenland can justify a kill of humpback whales. For them to turn their sights on a population of whales that is protected from hunting by the IWC, and of such potential value to the economy from whale watching, just doesn't add up. Greenland isn't even taking its full quota of whales, so the argument that they need to kill humpbacks to provide more meat is ludicrous" .
Unlike other Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling (ASW) applicants to the IWC who request a specified number of whales, Greenland bases its quota on a claimed need for an annual tonnage of whale meat. Fisher explained, "The number of animals taken in the East Greenland hunt has fallen over the past five years, suggesting that Greenlanders do not need all the meat claimed by the government. Yet the numbers of humpbacks and other whales they are proposing to kill now would produce a total of 644 tons of whale products, a whopping 189 tons more than has been hunted by Greenland over the last five years. One has to question the motivation" .
Greenland's pro-commercial whaling stance has placed Denmark at odds with the rest of the European Union which opposes commercial whaling, and flies in the face of public opinion in Denmark. A group of Greenlandic MPs wrote recently to the Parliamentary Committee on Planning and Environment in the Danish Parliament that "We would rather catch the whales commercially, like we catch shrimps and halibut, than being reduced to cultural weirdos, who most gratefully are allowed to slaughter a couple of sacred cows"¦" Claiming that even if it meant they received smaller quotas from the IWC, the letter stressed that they favoured undertaking commercial whaling. "This would make our whaling a normal industry instead of an ethnic alm" they wrote.
In supporting Greenland's quest to kill humpback whales, Denmark will demonstrate complete disregard for whale conservation," claimed Fisher on behalf of the other groups. "We call on Denmark to withdraw its support of the humpback proposal, to ensure that Greenland will not seek an increased ASW quota at the IWC meeting this year, and to ensure that no commercialization of meat from hunts awarded by the IWC to Greenland for local subsistence use is tolerated."
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