The videos from Icelandic boats revealed that many of the whales fought for their lives for a long time after being shot. Norway will not introduce a similar control.
It is late at night. In the light of the floodlight, the huge ridge again breaks the surface. The harpoon line tightens. A cloud of bloody water sprays out of the breathing hole. Another harpoon grenade is launched and hits it in the side. The fourth.
Over two hours after it was first shot, the fight to the death is over. The fin whale lies bloody and still on the surface.
The whale’s fight is not an isolated example of horror.
After major protests against the controversial catch, the Icelandic authorities introduced requirements last year that all shooting situations had to be filmed by an independent inspector.
Long fight to the death
Now the videos of the 184 whales that were caught last year have been analysed. The report prompted the Icelandic fisheries minister to halt this year’s fishing season before it could begin.
It was these facts that caused the minister to pull on the emergency brake:
Only six out of ten whales died instantly Four out of ten lived for a long time after being hit by the first shot These fought for an average of 17 minutes for their lives after being hit Twenty-four percent of the whales were shot twice or more before they died Two died not until they had been shot four times. One of these is the whale that fought for two hours.
In the video below, you can see how the injured whale, with two harpoons in its body, still dives to get free. Here, around an hour has passed since it was first shot:
The whale fights to get away from the injury and with two harpoon grenades in its body, the whale tries to dive to get away over an hour after it was first shot. Source: MAST
The conclusion from the Icelandic Food Safety Authority was clear:
The methods used in hunting these large whales are not in line with the Animal Welfare Act. The hunt is currently suspended until the end of August.
But that could spell the end of Icelandic whaling. Earlier this year, the country’s last whaling company, Hvalur, announced that it will probably be their last season. There is simply too little money to be made from fishing.
Hunts smaller cetaceans
In that case, Norway will be one of the few countries left in the world that still operates commercial whaling. Norway no longer hunts fin whales. But we shoot minke whales, a species that is considerably smaller than the fin whale. While the fin whale can be 45-75 tonnes, the minke whale is 6-9 tonnes.
Last year, 581 minke whales were caught. This year’s quota is 1,000 animals.
Do they die faster than their Icelandic big brothers and sisters?
This is what we know: Both minke whales and fin whales are killed with grenade harpoons. Surveys from 2011–2012 show that 82 per cent of minke whales die instantly. 18 percent do not. The median lifespan for these was six minutes.
Here the video shows how the whale dives and disappears into the depths after being shot the first time. Only two hours and three shots later it died:
Here the whale is shot for the first time. The Granatharpunen will ensure that it dies instantly. But instead the whale dives and tries to get free. Source: MAST
Requires video surveillance in Norway as well
But Norway has no equivalent requirements as Iceland to document how each individual animal was caught. The requirement for an inspector on board the whaling ships was dropped in 2005.
Now the animal welfare organization NOAH believes it is time to reintroduce the requirement.
– In Norwegian whaling today, there is virtually no overview of what happens to the animals in practical capture, says manager Siri Marthinsen.
She urges the Norwegian authorities to introduce filming of every shooting situation in whaling. The documentation should be made public, as has been done in Iceland, she says.
Random samples cannot reveal time of death
According to head of department Petter Meier in the Ministry of Trade and Fisheries, that is out of the question.
In an e-mail, he points out that the fin whale is far larger than the minke whale and that the catch of the two species is not comparable.
He writes that there are strict requirements for Norwegian whaling. Among other things, a separate license is required, and shooters must take a marksmanship test every year.
Meier also writes that whaling vessels can be required to have an inspector on board and that they can be subjected to random checks. But according to the Directorate of Fisheries, no vessel has been required to be an inspector in the last five years. And the controls are not suitable to reveal how long the killing took.
When asked whether the findings in Iceland give any cause for concern and whether the government will take action to ensure that Norwegian whaling takes place in line with the Animal Welfare Act, Meier replies:
– We have no indications that the implementation of Norwegian whaling violates the ethical standards that apply to Norwegian animal welfare.
Norwegian whale expert: Unscientific
Egil Ole Øen is a former researcher at the Norwegian Veterinary College. He has a doctorate in whaling and has developed the harpoon grenade that is used in whaling both in Norway and Iceland.
He was asked for advice in connection with the investigations into last year’s catch in Iceland, but disagrees with the conclusion. He believes the findings should not provide grounds for stopping the catch.
– The times of death were not ascertained in a professional and scientific way, only with the help of filming. The animals must be autopsied to find the exact time of death, otherwise the killing time will be overestimated, he says.
He explains that the animals are hunted from a distance, and that they often dive or sink after being shot. Therefore, it often takes some time before you see them again. In order to calculate the exact time of death, one must therefore assess damage to the organs, or preferably examine the brain, he explains.
– Unfair
He says the Norwegian surveys are done in this way and thus more reliable. An earlier survey in Iceland from 2014 done in the same way showed that 84 percent died instantly.
– It is quite high. Of course, one would like to see 100 per cent die instantly, but that never happens in hunting, nor in slaughtering, he says.
He acknowledges, however, that the catch in Iceland last year was special and that one fishing boat in particular had problems.
– I believe it was unfair to use a few weeks’ catch in a season to conclude that fin whales cannot be killed in a humane way, he says.
2023-07-02 20:31:46
#Film #requirement #halts #controversial #Icelandic #whaling
