Here’s a typical Norwegian coastal whaling boat leaving harbour. The boat is 25m long. A typical quota for a boat this size would be 15-20 minkie whales.
For photographs: www.whalephoto.com.
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Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
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Minke whales must be fairly valuable if harvesting 15-20 of them per year is enough to pay for a boat like this. I’ve located a whaler on offer for US$943,543. It takes a lot to pay that off, along with the cost of fuel, maintenance and personnel.
See:
http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1584092/0
Schiller,
These boats only go whaling for part of the year – the rest of the year, they are fishing quotas ( if they have any )for Cod, herring, Saithe, haddock etc …
5-7 men would be a typical crew for a boat of this size during the whaling season – some get by with less, some with more depending on the boat.
The boat you linked to is almost three times the size of this one and looks designed for full time Pelagic whaling…
George,
Interesting facts. I have to wonder what a minke whale is worth.
Which drives a further cluster of questions. The value of the boat is a function of the value of minke whales and whatever else can be gleaned from the ocean.
Does an allegedly diminishing plenitude of wealth from the ocean interactively drive the value of ships and fishing enterprises to the point where a natural equilibrium can be struck merely with market forces?
If the vision of market economies as an “environment” is reasonable, then such an equilibrium is not out of the question.
Schiller,
Depends on the Minke! size, quality of meat, prices paid by the processor/ buyer etc.
Say an average 1500kg minke ( meat recovered ) would probably net a boat around 60,000 NOK or so ( circa $9000 US ). More if the boat was proccessing or selling the meat direct and cutting out the middleman – but then again, that also would entail higher overheads.
Interesting thought though, especially in view of the ever changing value of the catch, be it minke or fish – Norwegian mackrel has doubled in auction price the past few weeks.
The norwegians see the minke hunt in norway as just another traditional ” fishery”, – Autumn-herring – saithe, Winter- herring-Cod, Spring- Cod etc, Summer- Minke. Others have Halibut quotas, King crab quotas, haddock quotas etc etc.. The principle they are defending is the principle of determining how to utilise the natural resources within their sovereign territory – whether it be Minke, seal, fish or otherwise…
George, you are a righteous, reasonable, factual dude. I’d say you’re an endangered species.
Hi George,
George:”The principle they are defending is the principle of determining how to utilise the natural resources within their sovereign territory – whether it be Minke, seal, fish or otherwise…”
I know you love the Norwegians, I love them too , but is your statement entirely correct?
They had a quota this year in international waters as well… and the Norwegians are expanding krill fisheries in the Antarctic. Some NGOs are not very satisfied with this…
BTW,not 100% sure , but doesn’t krill mean in Norwegian whale food?
Anne,
Which international waters would that be? care to elaborate?
Ottar is the word you are looking for anne – generalised word for ummmm.. small crustaceans and the like – they use it to describe prey/ food for birds and whales.
Who loves the norwegians? me? Apart from one particular red haired viking lady once upon a time, I´m not sure if thats entirely correct anne ;O) ..
Fishing in international waters by agreement is one thing anne – and NGO´s are not very satisfied with much of anything these days – thats the whole point of an NGO really ;op
George,
This info from WDCS: ” New regulations give Norwegian whalers the go-ahead to kill minkes also in international waters , the IWC management areas ES, EB, EW, EN and CM.
EN area is only 200 nautical miles of the UK coast.
Info from the High North Alliance:
When deliberating the White paper, the Parliament also said the minke whale hunt should go beyond national waters.
“The basis for the quota in the Jan Mayen area is the total IWC regulatory area around the island. In 2006 the whalers will be allowed to take the minke whale quota in a larger part of the Jan Mayen area than they have been allowed so far,” according to the Ministry’s media release.
In practice this means that Norwegian whalers will now be permitted to also catch minke whales in international waters.”
High North Alliance wrote also that ” Greenpeace made great efforts attempting to convince the locals that the group has no problems with Norwegian whaling”.
George, I reread your old post. It was a good one…
So you have been a chief cook on a ship…actually Greenpeace asked me this spring if I wanted to be an assistant cook on the Arctic Sunrise!
I told them sorry, I’m only good at chocolate cakes with whipped cream.
And Brian F. from GPI was thankful for that , because the cook is the most important person on a ship. No, a campaigner is not as important as a good cook, actually the outcome of a campaign depends on the cook !
Hi anne,
You mean the same WDCS that says there is still a blubber mountain?
You mean the Jan mayen zone where no whaling boat went to this year? and only one boat has gone the previous 2 years?
Note that Norway has an EEZ of 200NM round Jan maqyen also ..
I don´t have the relevant papers in front of me regarding the IWC EN area , so I´ll withhold further comment until then ..
No no anne – no chief cook on a ship – chief cook and bottle washer here 😉
The cook on a ship is God – stuff all that rubbish about the captain being God – it´s the cook 1000%
Will get back to you on the EN etc areas ..
Back again anne ..
Have a look here at the map
http://www2.dmu.dk/1_Om_DMU/2_Afdelinger/3_AM/4_Expertise/5_Research/6_marine_mammals/litterature_pdf/minke_whale_caesium-137.pdf
Note that the EN management area also covers the north sea – in other words, Norway can hunt minkies in their EEZ, which BORDERS the UK EEZ = 200NM .. looks like a WDCS ” ALARMIST FACTOID ” really don´t you think? shame they omitted that nugget..;)
ES is the Svalbard zone, CM the Jan mayen zone, EB the barents sea / Norwegian russian border zone … can´t see the EW area on that map.. but Norway took 167 minkies there in 2004
So again, which international waters?
George älskling,
For me it seems like the Norwegians are calling these areas international. Might be wrong.
http://www.fiskeridir.no/fiskeridir/ressursforvaltning/j_meldinger/gjeldende_j_meldinger/j_72_2006
Anne,
Unless they are talking about the ” smutthullet” (or whatever it´s called ) – it´s an area of international water thats bordered by EEZ zones on all sides…
Well regardless of the size of boats, territorial waters, etc., it obviously pays to hunt minkes.
Does anyone know of any good minke recipes or recall favorable dining experiences, etc.?
Here in North America, also known to cartographers as “Land of Demons,” etc., I’ve never found whale on any menu.
If it’s especially good stuff, I’ll look into import possibilities.
Sashimi style, raw and dipped is soy sauce is one way
http://www.worldcouncilofwhalers.com/publications/recipes/a_rare_delicacy.htm
Frankly, the first time I ate the minke , it made me almost puking, and no I was not influenced by the anti whaling movement. I didn’t know what I was eating until I asked…. maybe it was a very low class and cheap restaurant…
Know some Swedes that think minke is OK but some people think it’s kind of macho to eat whale meat . Anyway some Swedes have said that…
IMO whale meat is not a delicacy, but seal meat is much , much worse, lusekofterne have a real bad cuisine!
I see now that I have been a bit hard on the Norwegians… the salmon is great as well as the halibut( especially the Greenland halibut).
What I really wanted to point out is that Nordic food IMO is not very good, not an ultimate high, and I know Aussies that really don’t like to eat reindeer meat…
To George,
I believe you are not a fan of Remi Parmentier, but he had a quite good blog post on Norwegian krill fishing:
http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html
Check also out his post on krill in the September archive.
BTW, it was from Remi’s blog that I read ” krill means whale food in Norwegian”!
Now, don’t be too hard on Remi on this error and thanx for the information!
Schiller,
Take a trip to Alaska, some of the communities near Barrow in particular – Bowhead whale up there.
Regarding minke, take 1kg of good “back” fillet and slice into thin steaks or chops. Marinate ( olive oil, crushed garlic( full bulb), black pepper, salt, touch of italiam vinegar, some herbs. Marinate for a day or so and grill on a barbeque outdoors. A good european beer and or a good italian red wine to wash it down ..yum yum..
Anne, your mine eating story reminds me of a time where a national geographic guy sat down to a meal with a big bunch of us and some of us were debating whether or not to tell him what the meal was .. as he started to eat, the guy sitting next to him was humming and hawing and the NG guy looked at him and said ” ok, what am I eating? ” the guy told him “minke whale meat ” – the NG guy replied .. ” hmmm, tastes better than Puffin ” ( small seabird )and went on with his meal …
George,
Regarding the puffins, I believe the lunnefåglarna are more popular than the whale meat in Iceland!
Anne,
Krill quotas set by CCAMLR (Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources )are around 4.89 million tons a year I believe ( somebody correct me if I have that wrong ) -figures are from here :
http://www.edpsciences.org/articles/alr/pdf/2003/01/alr3065.pdf?access=ok
So the current 100k tons a year is around 1/50th of what CCAMLR estinates is a safe maximum quota, it kind of looks like ( at least ) Cher Remi is espousing an ” ALARMIST FACTOID ” here don´t you think?
I quote Remi here:
“there are now huge floating vacuum cleaners out there which are capable of sucking 120,000 metric tons of krill per season. Precautionary measures are urgently needed before species that rely on krill (whales, seals, penguins, etc) are starved or severely affected. A challenge for the Parties to the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources who are meeting next month in Australia.”
Why does Remi not wait until after the CCAMLR meeting this month to make an informed comment?
You tell me ..
George,
From experience we know that RFMOs( regional fisheries management organisations) have usually set too high quotas leading to overfishing.
This has been the case for example in the NAFO area( Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation), where quotas usually are too high and where fishing even occurs on species under moratoria.
George,
From experience we know that RFMOs( regional fisheries management organisations) have usually set too high quotas leading to overfishing.
This has been the case for example in the NAFO management area( Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation), where quotas usually are too high and where fishing even occurs on species under moratoria.
Well, maybe a more correct statement is that RFMOs have failed in this area and some species are now under moratoria as well as being caught.
Anne,
It´s a favourite GP tactic to prophesise doom and gloom – even when a management body demonstrates good practices and policies… I´ll worry / be concerned about an unstainable krill fishery if and when it actually begins to develop into a major fishery..
Unsustainable I meant above ..
George and me have discussed if a hunt of Fin whales is possible and sustainable in the North Atlantic.
There has been rumours in Iceland that a commercial hunt of 40 Fin whales will start this autumn. However the season must be closed now. I heard also that a whaler had received many million Icelandic kroner to start commercial whaling operations.
However, Iceland Review wrote yesterday and today that a commercial whaling ship had been out on the sea and tested it engines.
WWF’s Atlantic Director seems not to be against a resumption of Icelandic commercial whaling.
To me it seems like a major change has occured…
http://icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16567&ew_0_a_id=237439
Hi anne,
No major change really, simply a next step or continuation of icelandic long term plans. I´ll bet the NGO´s scream blue bloody murder though ;O)
Hi George,
But we also know that this year Iceland exported a small amount of whale meat to the Faroe Island…hardly any market for whale meat in Iceland. Who’s gonna eat the whales ?
And maybe most importantly. What will the tourist industry say? They are an important factor…
At the end of the day, they only reason why there might be a downturn in whale whaling tourism is because of misinformation campaigns, which amount to “economic terrorism”, as Joanne Massiah describes it. I’d say the opposite action would have better results – bombard Iceland’s shores with tourists wanting to see whales and give them lots of money. If the price is right I guess even some whalers would put aside their harpoons.
There is some more from Kristján Loftsson here:
http://www.interseafood.com/ifx/?MIval=dispatch&pg=newsview&news_action=read&id_news=14891
“I won’t be doing any more on these boats until we are allowed to go whaling again. Of course we try to keep things going and make people see some sense. It is unbelievable that our politicians are so slow in allowing whaling to be resumed, in spite of all the advice that says this is safe. The Marine Research Institute’s figures expect 200 minkes, 200 fin whales and 100 sei whales to be caught annually for scientific purposes, which is around the same amount that we were catching when we had all four ships at sea. We need to have licences to catch 150 to 200 fin whales to be able to start the factory up again”, he said.
“I really do not understand why all this research is being carried out when the results are ignored. Research shows that the sei whale stock is very strong and can support exploitation. It’s as if our politicians are giving the scientists at the Marine Research Institute the finger by not following their advice. If the same example was followed in fisheries, we would have to bring fishing to a halt for hundreds of years.
Politicians are very conservative in their thinking as regards whaling, while they are prepared to push fisheries right to the edge”, Kristján Loftsson said.
David,
Regarding the whale watching industry , there also seems to be different views…
Abbi( don’t recall his real name) but he is the main chief for the whale watching industry, based mainly in Husavik, was firstly very sceptical that Greenpeace should campaign against whaling in Iceland some years ago, but then he changed his mind apparently…
Well, anyway in Husavik, they say that whaling and whale watching can’t coexist… but I have heard that some whale watching operators in Reykjavik are of opposite opinion.
Mainly the Icelanders are even more nationalistic than the Norwegians and are really angry with foreign NGOs …
From what I’ve read on Iceland’s homepages, whaling and whale watching operations would be conducted in different areas, and of course so long as both are sustainable they can co-exist. But anyway…
By the way, I’m still looking at my whale watching expedition in Shikoku! They have Bryde’s whales down there apparently, and as they are apparently present all year round I should hopefully be able to see them even in Autumn. I need to take a look at my plans, but you never know, if I get my act together I could get along and see some by as early as the end of November!
Oh gee!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6059564.stm
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – Iceland decided on Tuesday to resume commercial whale hunts for the first time in two decades, ignoring an international moratorium.
“The decision to resume sustainable whaling involves takes of 30 minke whales and nine fin whales” in the year ending August 2007, the Icelandic Fisheries Ministry said in a statement.
Maybe some of our more multi-lingual friends can help us and translate this:
http://www.highnorth.no/read.asp?which=367
http://www.highnorth.no/read.asp?which=367
High North Alliance made the statement that Iceland will catch more whales than needed for the domestic market… now they are hoping for sales on the international market , basically an export market to Japan.
David,
Maybe George can help you tonite, if not I will translate it tomorrow morning.
David,
Basically, it is saying that iceland is following up on what it has already stated it will do. Not go commercial whaling till at least 2006 or as long as progress was being made on the RMS. As the RMS development was halted this year, they´ve decided to go commercial – the rest is mainly about comments from the various folk – the hvalur guy, Rune Frovik and the whale watching guy pretty much – and now we can all watch the NGO´s squeal blue bloody murder. You reap what you sow guys ….
Wonder what Paul and his merry band of thugs will do now? continue to the Southern ocean or have a go at Iceland ? or both? …. The possibilities are endless …;)
In particular, I wait to see what GP Nordic in particular will do as they have already stated that Anti whaling protests are counter-productive …
Above should read ” Anti whaling actions are counter -productive ” …
Now this one did make me laugh –
From the Greenpeace UK website :
“Claims that the hunt is sustainable cannot not be credible, since nine of the 39 whales that are to be targeted are endangered Fin whales. ”
Hmm? from a population of 25,800 ?
Dear GP UK, 25,800 minus 9 = sustainable
Thanks guys!
This morning I see Highnorth has an English press release now as well:
http://www.highnorth.no/read.asp?which=369
So Greenpeace UK doesn’t understand “sustainable” either? EIA + Greenpeace UK = two worthless “environmental” NGOs in the UK… I wonder if I can add WDCS to that list…..
Statements like this are the most bizarre:
“Iceland now plans to end its so-called scientific hunt in 2007 and begin hunting whales commercially”.
http://www.wdcs.org/dan/publishing.nsf/allweb/EFF99D84E08C36838025720A005A2F46
If WDCS is sooo sure that the “so-called” scientific whaling is not indeed whaling for scientific purposes, why should they care that Iceland come out and say that they are going to hunt LESS whales (I think 39 is less than has been hunted for research each year) next year but for commercial purposes?
It’s very hard to think in the same dreamworld as WDCS and these other groups to imagine that what they say could be anything like reality at all…
Re. international waters adjacent to Norwegian waters:
http://www.fisheries.no/NR/rdonlyres/859F606D-51A7-4F03-9BE3-A543ACE1E6F5/56040/nez800px.gif
IWC minke areas in international waters between the NEZ and Jan Mayen are CM (Jan Mayen area), EW and ES. In Norwegian these international waters are called “Smutthavet”, while “Smutthullet” is the area between Norwegian and Russian waters. Rune Frøvik, High North Alliance
OK, thanks Rune for the explanation, and the map was very clarifying…. frankly, never heard about Smutthavet, however I know about the Smutthullet and especially the fish transferring ships(omlastningsfartyg)that operate in the area.
Oh yeah, now I know what Smutthavet is, there has been an international pirate fishing fleet in this area fishing for red fish(?) snabeluer, I recall.
Greenpeace have monitored this pirate fishing fleet together with the Icelandic Coast Guard.
I believe the same fleet was detained in Kaliningrad some weeks ago by Russian authorities.
Thanks for the clarification Rune, I usually mix them both up 😉
1edb79f8cc5c Very good
I think you’re all a dying breed. I have been living and working in Southern Norway for nearly a year and no-one (O.K. maybe one but he is a not exactly the picture of physical or mental health)I have met is pro whaling and they find the matter both embarrasing and a moot point in general.
Keep eating the Minke steaks, keep absorbing the toxins they contain and have as many sickly deformed infants as you think you can sustain on it.
I have dived with Minke’s and the experience was profound. They are gentle, intelligent, sensitive creatures and they actually care about each other and make frequent bodily contact with each other. I learnt more about the animal in one hour of diving than any of you can ever dream of in a lifetime of senseless and barbaric predation.
Whale watching and Tourism alone would net the communities or (komunes)of the Northern Norway far more revenue than hunting and it is truly sustainable.
Also I would like to add that on the face of it, Norway is deeply religious country; which is why there is nothing to do on Sundays and why there is no public transport over the easter break.
Waste of time really. Brutally torturing and slaying one of your Gods most innocent and perfect creations gets you a one way ticket to the hot place down south (and I’m not talking about Hawai)…
Perhaps if Norway was to abandon whaling to the past where it belongs, then they might have more political sway when it comes to persuading the UK to stop dumping caesium 139 and Cobaly 69 into the Irish sea thus radio actively polluting the Norwegian coast.