New Report Details Norway’s Efforts to Promote Whaling

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Governments Must Respond to Norway’s Escalating Whaling, Whale Product Trade

Washing­ton, DC—Nor­way is now the world’s lea­ding wha­ling nation, kil­ling more wha­les in the past two years than Japan and Ice­land com­bi­ned. A new report relea­sed today calls on the inter­na­tio­nal com­mu­ni­ty to respond to Norway’s syste­ma­tic efforts to wea­ken mana­ge­ment rules and impro­ve mar­ket con­di­tions for its wha­lers.

Fro­zen in Time: How Modern Nor­way Clings to Its Wha­ling Past, pro­du­ced by the Ani­mal Wel­fa­re Insti­tu­te (AWI), Ocean­Ca­re and Pro-Wild­li­fe, details Norway’s under­mi­ning of the Inter­na­tio­nal Wha­ling Com­mis­sion (IWC) ban on com­mer­cial wha­ling and expo­ses the gro­wth of its over­seas tra­de in wha­le pro­duc­ts. The­se shi­p­men­ts – some of which have tran­si­ted Euro­pean ports en rou­te to Japan – play a key role in sustai­ning the Nor­we­gian wha­ling indu­stry.

“As one of the world’s most modern and pro­spe­rous coun­tries, Norway’s wha­ling is an ana­chro­ni­sm,” said Dr. San­dra Altherr, bio­lo­gi­st with Pro­Wild­li­fe.  “Slaughte­ring wha­les to eat and tra­de has no pla­ce in Nor­way and ser­ves only to dimi­nish the country’s inter­na­tio­nal repu­ta­tion.”

The Nor­we­gian govern­ment is fun­ding a num­ber of pro­jec­ts, both to pro­mo­te dome­stic sales of wha­le pro­duc­ts and to deve­lop alter­na­ti­ve com­mer­cial pro­duc­ts deri­ved from wha­les, inclu­ding die­ta­ry sup­ple­men­ts, medi­ci­nes, and cosme­tics. In 2015, the Mykle­bu­st Hval­pro­duk­ter com­pa­ny announ­ced the launch of a series of new pro­duc­ts deri­ved from wha­le oil, inclu­ding skin cream.

We were stun­ned that a Nor­we­gian wha­ling com­pa­ny is acti­ve­ly sel­ling health and beau­ty pro­duc­ts manu­fac­tu­red from wha­le oil,“We were stun­ned that a Nor­we­gian wha­ling com­pa­ny is acti­ve­ly sel­ling health and beau­ty pro­duc­ts manu­fac­tu­red from wha­le oil,” said Susan Mill­ward, AWI exe­cu­ti­ve direc­tor.  “This is not the 1800s. It is incom­pre­hen­si­ble that such a modern nation pro­du­ces skin creams sour­ced from an inhe­ren­tly cruel indu­stry.”

Whi­le diplo­ma­tic pres­su­re has been brought to bear on Ice­land and inter­na­tio­nal legal action has been taken again­st Japan for their wha­ling pro­grams, the report under­sco­res that Nor­way has lar­ge­ly been spa­red inter­na­tio­nal atten­tion and cri­ti­ci­sm.

“The IWC has not for­mal­ly com­men­ted on Norway’s wha­ling sin­ce 2001 and the inter­na­tio­nal com­mu­ni­ty has not pre­sen­ted a demar­che to Nor­way sin­ce 2006,” sta­ted Sigrid Lüber, Ocean­Ca­re pre­si­dent. “For as long as this remains the case, Nor­way will con­ti­nue to let Ice­land and Japan take the heat for wha­ling and main­tain its busi­ness as usual.”

The report details the Nor­we­gian wha­ling industry’s efforts to open Japan’s mar­ke­ts to its wha­le pro­duc­ts, and address qua­li­ty con­cerns, as a num­ber of Nor­we­gian wha­le shi­p­men­ts have been rejec­ted by Japan due to con­ta­mi­na­tion. Inspec­tors from Kyo­do Sen­pa­ku Kai­sha (the com­pa­ny ope­ra­ting the Japa­ne­se wha­ling fleet) have over­seen the pro­ces­sing of wha­le meat on board a num­ber of Nor­we­gian wha­ling trips as a result.

Fro­zen in Time con­clu­des with recom­men­ded actions that should be taken by the IWC and its mem­ber govern­men­ts to com­pel Nor­way to cea­se com­mer­cial wha­ling and tra­de in wha­le pro­duc­ts.

Ani­mal Wel­fa­re Insti­tu­te

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