2006-09-21 20:45:21Cabnolen
Norwegian whalers put on show for tourists
Source: UPI
ANDENES, Norway (UPI) -- Tourists on a whale-watching trip in northern Norway got a bit more than they expected when they watched as a whale-hunting boat killed one.
Geir Maan, captain of the whale-watching boat Reine, told the newspaper Andoyposten he did not expect the hunters to go after their quarry so close to his vessel. In addition to the whale killing, the tourists spotted another vessel with a dead whale on its deck.
”This really wasn’t what we came to see,” Leontien Dieleman of the Netherlands said. ”It was a fantastic sight to see a whale swimming and breaching. On the way back to Andenes, though, we saw a dead whale on deck. The blood was running, it wasn’t a pretty sight.”
Norway with Japan and Iceland has been agitating for years to end the international ban on whaling. Norway for several years has defied the ban and allowed commercial whaling under a quota system, while Iceland and Japan claim their whaling is only for scientific purposes.
Maan said the whale-hunters’ actions will only revive the controversy in Norway -- ”like throwing oil on a fire that was about to die out.”
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
ANDENES, Norway (UPI) -- Tourists on a whale-watching trip in northern Norway got a bit more than they expected when they watched as a whale-hunting boat killed one.
Geir Maan, captain of the whale-watching boat Reine, told the newspaper Andoyposten he did not expect the hunters to go after their quarry so close to his vessel. In addition to the whale killing, the tourists spotted another vessel with a dead whale on its deck.
”This really wasn’t what we came to see,” Leontien Dieleman of the Netherlands said. ”It was a fantastic sight to see a whale swimming and breaching. On the way back to Andenes, though, we saw a dead whale on deck. The blood was running, it wasn’t a pretty sight.”
Norway with Japan and Iceland has been agitating for years to end the international ban on whaling. Norway for several years has defied the ban and allowed commercial whaling under a quota system, while Iceland and Japan claim their whaling is only for scientific purposes.
Maan said the whale-hunters’ actions will only revive the controversy in Norway -- ”like throwing oil on a fire that was about to die out.”
Copyright 2006 by United Press International