Finnish and Swedish environment ministers call on Norway to reverse decision to increase whaling
Finland's Minister of the Environment Jan-Erik Enestam and his Swedish counterpart Lena Sommestad have sent a joint letter to the Norwegian Government concerning whaling. The letter, addressed to the Norwegian fisheries minister Helga Pedersen, describes Norway's recent decision to increase catches of minke whales as extremely regrettable, and calls on the Norwegian Government not to go through with this policy.
Norway has resolved to increase its national whaling quota to 1,052 minke whales during the 2006 whaling season- a record high. This figure has been calculated by adding the shortfalls from the quotas defined for the last two years, which Norwegian whalers did not fully exploit, to this year's basic quota of 745 whales.
Norway is the only member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) currently practising commercial whaling. In 1982, Norway, Japan and the Soviet Union lodged official objections to the IWC's decision to end commercial whaling from the 1985/86season. Japan has subsequently withdrawn its objection to the moratorium, while Russia has maintained its objection, but not recommenced whaling. Norway restarted commercial whaling in 1993, with an annual quota of 226 minke whales, which has been repeatedly raised ever since. Finland and Sweden have regularly expressed regret about Norway's whaling actions.
Since the early 1990s there have been calls within the IWC for the moratorium to be reassessed. According to the consensus within the IWC, all exceptions to the moratorium require agreement on both the whaling quotas to be allocated to specific member states, and procedures for the effective monitoring and inspection of commercial whaling operations.
In their letter, the Finnish and Swedish environment ministers state that Norway's decision to considerably increase the scale of commercial whaling can be seen within the IWC as a form of protest that will make it harder to find new constructive ways to resolve whaling issues. The two ministers believe that it is important to work through negotiations to find a solution that can be approved by the whole IWC.
More information:
Political Adviser Susanna Korpivaara, tel +358 9 1603 9304. Environment Counsellor Esko Jaakkola, tel +358 9 1603 9371