It’s been 37 years coming, but a Greenlandic bowhead whale has been hunted and caught near the town of Qeqertarsuaq, thus finally filling its special quota to catch a single whale. In 1973, the historic Greenland whaling town was granted permission to hunt a single whale in commemoration of the town’s 200th anniversary. Read the full story

Although the European Union is trying to establish a unified position against whaling within its member nations before the upcoming International Whaling Commission (IWC) summit, Denmark has already stated it will vote against the EU line on the issue. The Copenhagen Post reports that Denmark is prepared to back Greenland since the EU proposal will likely reject an amendment concerning Greenland’s request for an increased whaling quota. Read the full story

The general manager of Elding, the company offering whale watching trips from Reykjavik Harbour, says she is very disappointed with fishing minister Steingrimur J. Sigfusson’s decision to allow whaling this summer.

“We are going to feel this,” Rannveig Gretarsdottir told mbl.is when she heard Sigfusson’s decision. Read the full story

Iceland’s minister for finance, farming and fisheries, the Green Party leader Steingrimur J. Sigfusson, today announced that his predecessor’s controversial increase in the whaling quota will stand – at least for this year.

Former fisheries minister Einar K. Gudfinsson made it his parting act to announce a quota of 100 minke whales and 150 fin whales per year for the next five years. Many observers believed the decision was made partly to cause the strongly anti-whaling Sigfusson a headache in his new job. Read the full story

Norway’s Fisheries Ministry announced that it has lowered the annual quota of minke whales allowed to be caught by commercial fishing companies by 16 percent. The new quota will take effect in 2009, allowing whalers to catch 885 minke whales next year as opposed to 1,052 this year. Read the full story

Last week Norway officially stated that it would not be able to catch enough whales this year to meet its allocated quota. Few nations still allow whaling, and animal activists are jumping on this opportunity to claim that this is proof Norway should abandon the highly controversial act of whaling.

Since the opening of this year’s whaling season on April 1, Norwegian fishermen have only been able to catch half of the number of whales allowed by government authorities. 533 minke whales have been caught out of an allowed quota of 1,052. The whaling season ended on August 31, and local fishermen were already admitting that they would fall far short of the quota weeks in advance, according to The Guardian.

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Meat from fin whales caught in Icelandic waters has been sent for sale in Japan, according to BBC reports. The BBC says that as much as 60 tonnes of fin whale meat caught during the whale hunt of 2006 was exported, together with a smaller amount of minke whale meat from Norway.

An official in Japan said that there had been no request to import whale meat; however sources inside the industry claim the meat has already arrived.

The fin whale is currently considered an endangered species and is specifically listed on the Red List of Threatened Species.

According to officials in Iceland, the whale populations in their waters are high enough that small kills are sustainable. The export would be the first such sale to Japan in the last 20 years and comes from a kill of seven whales in 2006.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has ban on commercial whaling since 1986, however whaling has a cultural history in both Iceland and Norway. Both nations have formally objected to the ban and continue to grant government commercial quotas for annual hunts on a small scale.

The sale of whale meat is further prohibited under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Three countries have achieved exemption from the prohibition.

Kristjan Loftsson is the chief executive of a company in Iceland that catches fin whales. “This trade will be mutually beneficial for the three main whaling countries,” he said.

“This trade is perfectly legal under the domestic legislation of the three countries as well as all relevant international law.”

Iceland is likely to restart hunting minke whales in May according to a report from the BBC.

Iceland resumed commercial whaling in 2006 but in August last year the Ministry of Fisheries said it would not issue new quotas until demand for whale meat increased.

This was interpreted by many as an end to whaling in Iceland but the Ministry’s decision only called for a temporary halt to the hunt. The Icelandic whaling industry now says it has sold all the meat from the last two years’ catch which shows there is an appetite for whale meat.

In an interview with the BBC, a government official said that it was “likely” that minke whale quotas will soon be issued.

“We are not expecting any big quotas, but we are likely to see in the relatively near future some quotas for minke whales,” it quoted Stefan Asmundsson, a senior official in Iceland’s fisheries ministry, as saying. He added that, “the most important factor is to ensure the quotas are within sustainable limits.”

Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, head of Iceland’s minke whaling association, said he hoped for a quota for 100 of the whales.

The IWC estimates there are about 175,000 minke whales in the North Atlantic and Icelandic scientists say a quota of 100 easily fits within the definition of “sustainable”.

Minke whales are the second smallest of the baleen whales, averaging 7 metres in length and weighing around 4-5 tonnes.

Norway has announced its whale quota for 2008 and plans to hunt over a thousand minke whales.

Norway’s Fisheries Ministry said that the quota has remained unchanged from last year. Though it includes 97 whales that were not caught during previous whaling seasons.

The majority of the whales will be taken from the coastal areas around the Barents Sea, Svalbard and the North Sea.

Whaling in recent years has been adversely affected by bad weather conditions and rising prices of fuel. In particular, the waters of north-eastern Iceland, around the island of Jan Mayen, have proven difficult for whaling operations.

There are seven kinds of great whales, among which the minke are the smallest. The government of Norway fears that without whaling, the minke whale population’s growth could adversely affect fish stocks in the region.

“The total stock size of central and north Atlantic minke whales is close to 70,000 animals, of which around 43,600 are in Icelandic coastal waters,” said a statement from the government. “The catches are clearly sustainable and therefore consistent with the principle of sustainable development.”

A 14-year old girl was arrested in London on Thursday for protesting against whaling at the Japanese embassy. The girl had tied herself to the embassy’s staircase.

Sophie Wyness was joined by her father, Martin, in the lobby of the embassy. The two used cables to attach themselves to the stone staircase located inside the embassy’s lobby in order to protest against the “brutal murder” of whales.

The teenager said, “They’re such amazing creatures and they deserve rights and love and a bit of respect… I have total respect for the Japanese people but not what they’re doing out there with the whales.”

According to a London police officer, two people were detained at a London police station on the suspicion of trespassing.

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