"Save the Whales - for dinner"

A question that keeps arising, when you're a Norwegian abroad, is: "What do you think about whaling?" My reply has usually been vague, and limited, due to limitations in my own knowledge. Whaling is disputed for mainly two reasons: the whales are endangered, after the heavy whaling industry with no sense of conservation almost made it extinct. The whale population can't handle any more whaling, so we should stop it; Secondly, there's the argument that whales are so incredibly smart (They should be appointed a seat in the UN - if they could speak, they'd tell us about our atrocities, etc.). Generally my response to this, is that if the whale populations are too low, then we shouldn't kill them - but why should we only kill the stupid animals? We don't kill stupid people. I think killing a cow instead of a whale because the latter is smarter, based on some kind of "humane" charter is weird, and does not quite have any resonance in my values.

Last night I had dreams about whales though. I dreamt that a Blue Whale had come into some Norwegian fjord, and I was watching it from a ship (possibly, this was a ferry, that would make sense in my dream). The whale was jumping from the water, making gigantic splashes, and it was kinda fun, after all, whale watching is an industry in Norway. But as I was watching, the whale got closer with its splashing (keep in mind, we're talking about a blue whale, like a hundred tonnes of flesh, displacing water), and suddenly I fell off the ship, and landed on the huge blue monster, which swallowed me in one big gulp of me and seawater. This was of course a turn for the worse, in my otherwise pleasant dream - after all, being a mammal, who's puked, I've come to consider the stomach a rather unpleasant place. And I mean, these animals have stuff growing on their skin on the outside, who knows what grotesque world is to be found on the inside. Anyways, that's where the dream ended, and I was safely disgorged in the land of the awake.

This dream, however obscure, has compelled me to investigate this whaling thing a little further. And I'd like to keep everyone else involved in my enlightenment process. A brief history. Whaling has been going on a while - in South Korea they hunted whales as early as 6000 BCE, while Norwegians started doing it around 800 CE. This sounds like a rather scary ordeal for primitive fishers, but not generally so for the whale population as a whole. Later, in the 19th century, there was a need for whale oil. I don't know in particular what they used this oil for, but maybe it had some qualities of sorts, or it was just used for energy or light. The "quality", would then be similar to quantity, and whales are big hunks of lard. But the oil was the primary reason for large-scale "modern" industrial whaling, and was the cause of the great decline of whale populations around the world, including the mentioned blue baleo. Whaling continued well into the 20th century in manners that would be criminal today. As the effects of whaling became apparent, various environmentalists began to be raise their voices, and in 1970 the International Whaling Commission was founded to maintain the whale. In 1986 they voted for a temporay moratorium on whaling, which was supposed to last for 5 years, but has lasted until now. Norway was not very happy with this arrangement, but after the USA threatened with boycott (also in 1986), Norway agreed to stop whaling, although continued under the auspices of "scientific catch." However, in 1992, while Gro Harlem Brundland was PM in Norway, we picked up whaling again, and this is the main root of Norwegian fame as butcher of the sea. Gro Harlem Brundtland was the Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), who authored the "Our Common Future" report. In this light, too, this whaling stance was controversial. So why? Why bother? Why become unpopular across the globe (not including Iceland, Japan, St. Kitts and Nevis...) After all, whaling was not economically significant in Norway at the time. However, largely in Northern Norway, there was a pro-whaling sentiment, in an argument that has forever been residing there: we need something to do to maintain jobs. It's been guessed that the reason for this stunt was to trick people in the North to vote for EU membership in the 1994 referendum. As we know, Norway is still not a member of the EU, and we haven't been carpet bombed for our whaling either (perhaps in a verbal way, we've been bombed). Between 1994 and 2005, the quotas for killing minke whale (which is basically what is caught) has been in the range between 200 and 700, which actual numbers being caught about 10 % less. This year, though, the quota has been raised to 1052 whales. This is not the reason why whaling once again hit the news though, but rather because the mentioned IWC has voted to lift the moratorium on whaling. This doesn't really mean that the ban has been lifted, but rather just indicating a shift in policy. Norway is still in breach with IWC as we're whaling. The caught whales are minke whales, which are registered as a "lower risk" species. That basically means that someone has taken the time to evaluate, but it doesn't fill the requirements of being endangered, or at risk. If this is true, I don't really see a problem with Norwegian whaling, though it seems a bit retarded to have such an arrogant attitude towards this issue, as Norway constantly is trying to he a good kid in all the environmental and peace-related issues.