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Norway's Past Ban on Whaling Mirrors Present Debate
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OSLO - Norway marked the 100th anniversary of a unilateral ban on Arctic whaling yesterday, a stark contrast to Oslo's current policy of hunting the giant mammals despite a global moratorium.
Parliamentary records show Norway's whalers, led by rich investors from the south, were widely accused of driving species such as the giant blue whale toward extinction almost as soon as the industry began in the 1860s.
In a landmark conservation measure, parliament voted on December 3, 1903, to outlaw whaling for 10 years off Norway's three northernmost counties despite worries that nations such as neighboring Russia would fail to respect a ban.
The law, which came into force in 1904, was meant to help fishermen who saw whales as allies even though many species eat fish. They believed the mammals drove fish like capelin and herring toward land and scared them into shoals that were easier to net.
"The arguments have changed around," said Frode Pleym at environmental pressure group Greenpeace. "In recent decades Norwegians have argued that we have to kill whales to protect fish stocks, the opposite conclusion to 100 years ago."
Oslo resumed commercial hunts of minke whales in 1993, arguing that Atlantic stocks of the small species had recovered, despite a 1985 moratorium by the International Whaling Commission. Japan and Iceland catch whales for what they call scientific research.
Archives show many of Norway's parliamentarians in the early 20th century accused the whalers of greed. Catches started with 30 blue whales - the largest creature ever to live on the planet - in 1868.
WHALE WARNINGS
Norwegian marine scientist G.O. Sars once warned that "the enormous development of whaling in recent years opens the prospect of fast extermination of the two most attractive species, the blue whale and the finn back whale."
He also dismissed the belief that fish are shepherded by whales, saying capelin swam toward shallow waters to spawn.
After the parliamentary vote, about 300 people in the Arctic village of Vardo sent a telegram to parliament: "All hope and believe that brighter and happier times will start in northern Norway." Many in north Norway saw the fight against whalers as that of poor locals against rich capitalists.
But Norway's ban prompted whalers to move operations to richer grounds in the south Atlantic. The poorly controlled hunts contributed to the stripping of the seas.
Global fish stocks have also plunged in the 20th century with the United Nations setting a goal of 2015 to revive stocks.
Jan Kristiansen, head of a Norwegian whaling group, said minke whales caught off Norway in 2003 were scrawny and had to compete for food with "hordes" of finn and humpback whales.
"Whales are on the list of threatened species thanks to a corrupt Whaling Commission steered by conservationists," he wrote recently in a fishing newspaper. "No whales in our waters, apart from the blue whale, belong on the list."
Story by Alister Doyle
Story Date: 4/12/2003
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© Reuters News Service 2002
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