Originally posted by: CyberDuck
Since I am from Norway I might bring some enlightenment on the subject. I?m far from an expert on the topic, but so am obviously none of the debaters here either.
Harvesting whales is a very old tradition in Norway, believed to be going back for as long as there have been people in this country. The first written laws about whaling are more than 1000 years old. Its part of the culture, and this part of the culture we want to keep as long as it does not endanger the species of whales being harvested. The type of whale being cached now is of type mink whale. There around 85 000 Mink Whales in the Barents sea area, and last years quota for whaling was 1052 individuals. The catching is being done by quite small vessels like the one on this picture:
Nowegian Whaling Boat
There are very strict control of the caching, last year every boat had to have an inspector form the government on board all the time when out looking for whales. Whales are being killed by explosive harpoons, and should be killed as fast as possible.
The latest years there have been a lot of international opposition against whaling, mainly because of Greenpeace and other environmental organizations propaganda campaigns sponsored by very rich people with to much money and some sort of dirty conscience. Greenpeace and others also buy off small countries who have newer ever been near to a whale or have any whatsoever knowledge about the subject. This countries then votes in the international whaling commission, and keeps the ban on whaling going even if there is no scientific reason for it. Norway does not accept this, and have been whaling for domestic consumption the last years. We intend to continue with this, and the Norwegian population is thoroughly behind the government in this policy. We see whales as (big) food (and big people need big food you know

). In some cultures, like the American, they have bought the Greenpeace propaganda about whales that they are intelligent and cute and what not, well, so are cows in my mind, so, stop eating those burgers!
Regards
Jostein