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Norwegian whalers kill first minke whale of the season

Sadly, Norwegian whalers have killed the first minke whale this season. The whale was caught on Monday by the whaling ship Kato off the Finnmark coast. According to skipper Dag Myklebust, the whale was eight metres long and weighed around 1,700 kilos.

In February, we reported that Bjørnar Skjæran, Norway’s new minister of fisheries had set a quota (number that can be killed) of 917 minke whales for this season. The whalers rarely take their quota and usually generate a 'permitted carryover' to the next hunting season, but nevertheless hundreds of whales are slaughtered, often taking a long time to die. 2021 saw 575 minke whales killed, marking the deadliest whaling season since 2016. 16 vessels have registered to hunt this year.

Last autumn, shocking new documents revealed that dwindling domestic demand for the meat means that some is sold for dog food. Our most recent poll commissioned by NOAH, Norway’s largest animal protection NGO, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), and WDC found that only 2 percent of Norwegians regularly eat whale meat.

Find out more about whaling in Norway.

About George Berry

George is a member of WDC's Communications team and website coordinator.

3 Comments

  1. Nina McCanch-Jones on 20th April 2022 at 5:49 pm

    Please stop the barbaric hunting of whales

  2. Donata Butler on 29th April 2022 at 9:56 am

    How can people do this it’s cruel and barbaric the whole thing must be stopped permanently it’s horrendous

  3. Charmaine on 4th May 2022 at 3:14 pm

    It’s so sad, l have been to Norway back in 2005 but l have a t/shirt which l bought from you which says ban the whale trade and wore it around Oslo and in Japan. I did not like Japan but the cruise ship called in there. We have to save those beautiful whales and dolphins

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