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Sunday 05.02.2012

Denmark will defend Greenland at the IWC

Greenland plans to ask the Intl. Whaling Commission for an annual quota of 10 humpback whales off West Greenland, in addition to at least 175 minkes and 19 fin whales.

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 to be held in Anchorage, Alaska the last week in May.

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. An additional 12 minkes are being sought for East Greenland, and the quota would remain fixed until 2012 when Greenland indicates that it could seek to hunt 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 quotas.

Greenland bases its quota reuest on a claimed need for an annual tonnage of whale meat. Danish negotiators are seeking a five-year quota of 670 tonnes annually over the next five years.

Greenland's pro-commercial whaling position has placed Denmark at odds with the rest of the European Union which opposes commercial whaling.

A group of North Atlantic 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...This would make our whaling a normal industry instead of an ethnic alm" they wrote.