Greenland’s Greedy Whaling Request
Volume LXI · No. 2 · Madeira, Portugal · Tuesday June 23, 2009
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Greenland is asking the IWC once again for permission to allow local kills of humpback whales for supposedly “aboriginal subsistence” uses, but, to coin a phrase, there’s something rotten in Denmark.
The subsistence whalers will be selling humpback meat in commercial markets throughout Greenland.
In a letter to the Commission signed by a number of NGO groups, the World Society for the Protection of Animals and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society point out:
- Greenland bases its “needs” statement for nutrition on the entire population of Greenland, not on the local subsistence tribes’ needs.
- Greenland’s assumption presumes that humpback whale meat is needed to provide the entire population with meat, when in fact locals already kill large numbers of small cetaceans, seals, and reindeer, not to mention fish.
- A WSPA investigation discovered last year that fully 25 percent of the whales taken for “subsistence” instead went to a commercial company that sold the meat in 100 supermarkets throughout Greenland, for a hefty profit.
Clearly, Greenland has to go back and redo the entire proposal for humpback whales, to ensure that the “aboriginal subsistence” provisions of the IWC are complied with, not flaunted.
In the meantime, the IWC should not approve this proposed hunt. Greenland should not be marketing humpback whale meat throughout Greenland via supermarkets nor inflating the needs for subsistence users.