Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Whaling News from the North Atlantic – A Note from Ann Novek

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1) News from the Icelandic Minke Whaler’s Association, 15.4.2008.
Minke whaling boat Njordur KO, will leave port in the middle of May, to start minke whale hunting that will continue to the summer.

The vessels Dröfn RE and Halldor Sigurdsson IS, will join the hunt during the summer. According to the plan, whale meat be available in the stores in the shift of May/ June, and the meat will be prepared as the previous years.

Whale meat processor Esja, will take care of the marketing and preparation of the whale meat. The minke whale hunters hope this change will increase the sales of whale meat, which they since the year 2004 , have taken care of by themselves.

2) In the Norwegian hunt, so far 5 minke whales have been killed ( Friday).

3) I haven’t mentioned this previously, but Libby Eyre was on Swedish TV, swimming with her humpbacks in Tonga. Another contributor to the blog, George McCallum, had his whale pictures featured in a Swedish traveller’s magazine on Norway “ Nordland Naturligtvis” ( Northland Naturally). A story on whale’s safaris in Norway.

4) Our old friend Rune, is now a Director for the whale meat processing plant, Lofothval, that gets Govt’s support financially.

5)Another traveller’s magazine on the Faroe Islands states: “Funky Faroes — Whale and Gay bashing is out.”

Ann Novek
Sweden

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Comments

  1. George McC says

    Hi Anne,

    Would be interested to see what images were used as I have never heard of them and have never supplied them with images …. could be the images were sold via an agency of course but I´d still be interested just to check 😉

    G

  3. Ann Novek says

    Hello George,
    It’s a brand new magazine ,from Innovasjon Norge, Visit Norway se. It came out today.

    The pic is of the two or three killer whales in the sunset ( an orange pic) . There’s a text to the image : ” You can never go to the killer whale . But the killer whale can come to you . If it wants.

    You can maybe check http://www.visitvesteralen.com or

    http://www.visitnorway.se

    visitnordland.no

    Nordlands Reiseliv

    Postboks 434, 8001 Bodö

    e-mail : nordland@nordlandreiseliv.no , and ask for the information från Innovasjon Norge.

    If you have bad luck , I can send a copy to you!

  4. George McC says

    Hi again anne,

    Thanks – I found it here –

    http://viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?mid=fqgfw#/page14/

    They used that image maybe 6 years ago on the cover and were supposed to have deleted it afterwards as per contract – obviously they have´nt and thats going to be expensive for them… so thanks again 🙂 – I´ll give them a ring tommorrow and smack some fingers

    The beers are on me kjaere anne.. lol

    cheers

    G

  6. Ann Novek says

    A clarification here on George’s pic in the magazine from Innovasjon Norge. This is the Norwegian Tourist Board.

  7. Ann Novek says

    Excerpt from the Monocle magazine:

    “The Faroe Islands, an autonomous Danish province with barely 50,000 locals, is known for hunting, homophobia and knitwear. Not surprisingly, it has an image problem. But now the nation is on a mission to rebrand itself and ‘do a Reykjavík'”

  8. Ann Novek says

    Pilot-whale hunts have been going on in the Faroe Islands since the 10 th century. Most Faroese people have taken part in the killings , which many consider an important part of the Faroese national identity and especially in the past , a key resource of meat.

    When a school of whales is spotted close to land , mostly in the summer and in good weather conditions , it is surrounded by boats and driven to shore where beached whales are killed with sharp knives.

    The typical killing lasts between 5 and 15 minutes.

    Grindadrap to be continued…

  9. Ann Novek says

    Pilot whaling is not commercially driven and it is illegal to sell the meat. Instead , it is divided among the people who participated in the hunt or live near the killing to ensure that everybody , the sick, elderly and widows gets their share.

    Since 2000, the annual whale kill in the Faroe Islands has been between 302 and 1010 animals.

  10. Ian Mott says

    Good for them, eat well. Hope they keep their ways and avoid being reduced to some sort of metrocentric Danish cultural clone. Long-term there is more value in their cultural diversity than any short term gains in conformity.

    They should consider independence from Denmark.

  11. Jennifer B. says

    What does it say about a country if they lose their cultural identity should they stop killing 1000 whales or bashing gays?