Norwegian fisheries paper, Fiskeribladet, stated on March 13th, with the headline “ Scaling down whale purchase," that Norway’s largest whale meat processing factory, Ellingsens, will scale down its purchase of whale meat.
The owner, Ulf Ellingsen stated, “Maybe we will buy whale meat, maybe not, but anyway it will be much less than previous years.”
Ellingsens factory runs mainly selling salmon. According to the paper, they are concerned that the whale hunt will finally die out, with fewer actors in every field.
“Whaling is in a downward spiral,” said the owner.
BBC stated on March 13th “Iceland whaling go-ahead likely.”
The Icelandic Minke Whalers Head said to BBC that the whaling industry is asking for a quota of about 100 minkes and some Fin whales.
Excerpt from BBC:
Stefan Asmundsson, a senior official in Iceland's fisheries ministry and its commissioner to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), confirmed that the hunt was likely to go ahead.
"We are not expecting any big quotas, but we are likely to see in the relatively near future some quotas for minke whales.”
The Fisheries Minister is likely to make the final announcement within a month.
Cheers,
Ann Novek
Sweden
Read : I will also post ....
" Environment Minister Peter Garrett has called on Iceland and Norway to respect the international global moratorium on commercial whaling.
The call follows reports Iceland is considering issuing commercial whaling quotas for 2008, on the back of Norway's recent decision to approve a quota"
http://news.theage.com.au/garrett-wants-end-to-commercial-whaling/20080319-20gg.html
There will also post a translation here on the blog re a statement from the Icelandic Minke Whalers Association on the IWC meeting in London
Well then 'Alex', maybe you could ask me for it. It's pretty simple really. Contrary to your paranoid and baseless claim I have no qualms about supplying the reference. It is a matter of courtesy, which you are incapable of but demand from others.
Happy Easter Ann. May you have healthy gulls with no bumble foot that can be released into pristine seas.
Travis, most people regard supplying the references when you quote someone as the minimum standard of behaviour. Google "plagiarism". But of course, this quote isn't as "convenient" as you first assumed it to be so you are now trying to bury it.
HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE!!!!
Mott wrote:
>obvious hint
No hints Ian. Ask, like a normal, decent human being would. Oh, excuse me, that isn't you.
Mott wrote:
>One normally regards this as a minimum professional performance requirement
Shall we scroll back through the archives to see where you have provided referenced material vs anecdotal crap vs lies vs plain stoopid comments? You are a hypocrite. Then again, you did mention 'professional', which again is not you.
Mott wrote:
>This kind of baseless, unsubstantiated
That is exactly you in your nut shell Mott.
Still can't get your re-faced head around the fact that getting population estimates for aquatic animals is different from counting COWS in a paddock can you? I wonder why...
Your ignorance NEVER ceases to amaze.
You still don't get it, Ann. If the sound is very low frequency then it is inaudible to all the species that operate in a higher frequency band. And your reference to Blue whales at 190-dB vs 230-dB was a nice attempt at a side-step but, again, you ignore the critical issue of frequency band.
Lets look at Travis' unreferenced quote again where it says, "..exposing three individuals of each species ..to a high-frequency click of a bottlenose dolphin [peak frequency (PF) 120 kHz, 213-dB peak-to-peak exposure level (EL)], a midfrequency click modeled after a killer whale’s signal (PF 55 kHz, 208-dB EL), and a low-frequency click (PF 18 kHz, 193-dB EL)."
Note that the latter low frequency click was at 18 kHz and 193-dB while the long range sonar is all in the <1 kHz band. It is such a low frequency with such a long wavelength that resounance is not an issue.
Just a little hint, folks. We have "microwave" ovens for heating things up. They work on the resounance produced by high frequency radiation. We do not have ultra-low frequency ovens because they do not produce sufficient resounance to warm up a blow-fly's turd.
And readers should note that Travis has declined my obvious hint above to supply references to his quotes. One normally regards this as a minimum professional performance requirement but, then, I suppose it does involve Travis, after all, so I guess we will have to do without.
And what a cop-out on the Belugas, Ann. Using the mere potential for future harm as a justification for limiting the rights and liberties of the Inuit is classic green sleaze.
The first obligation of all who might want to influence policy on the management of these resources is to get the damned numbers right. The next step is to observe actual trends in numbers to determine the ACTUAL impacts, if any, of the issues you raised. And once those ACTUAL impacts can be shown to be of a material bearing on the populations of the species then appropriate and proportionate measures could be implemented.
If the Canadian DFO is so incompetent and unprofessional as to propose regulations, or to maintain existing ones, on the basis of population estimates that range from 72,000 to 144,000, or that can be between 42 times and 120 times below the actual population count, then they are clearly acting with a callous disregard for the rights and liberties of the Inuit people.
So lets take a look at what you said, shall we?
"But the times are changing in the Arctic. Not only is there increasing pressure to hunt more whales, (how many more, exactly) there's also concern (by what vocal but ignorant minority) that disease, and contaminants like mercury that are washing out of the melting permafrost, could affect the belugas' future (in what specific way and to what extent?).
And then there was, "The rapidly melting sea ice (really? not this year, Ann), however, could be an even greater threat. Open water could make belugas more vulnerable to killer whales and to the increasing number of ships that will be entering Arctic waters".
This last one is a classic. So how many ships enter these Arctic waters already, Ann? And how many more are realistically likely to go there IF the ice continues to melt? And how many million km2 of water are these 72,000 to 144,000 Belugas spread over and what is the realistic probability that these ships will kill any but the old and sick who are too weak to respond to the only ship to pass by that week? My guess? About three fifths of sweet FA.
This kind of baseless, unsubstantiated scaremongering to deprive minorities of access to their natural resources is the worst kind of neo-colonialist arrogance because it claims authority without any responsibility for the consequences.
"There’s a theory that the dolphin has two hearing systems. One is devoted to communication sounds — the whistles and other noises they make in social settings. The scientists believe the other one is a passive system that has special timing considerations in a portion of the brain that becomes engaged when they begin to echolocate. When dolphins generate a click, they somehow know when the echo will return, and they can ignore other incoming signals until they receive the echo"
FYI Travis has already mentioned this interesting aspect .