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Hunting Norwegian Whalers Shock Tourists
Wed Jul 5, 5:47 PM
OSLO, Norway - Hunters shocked a boatload of tourists on a whale watch off Norway's Arctic during the weekend, harpooning a whale in front of them.
About 80 tourists were aboard the trawler Reine, which was headed for areas off the Arctic Lofoten Islands known for their abundance of whales, when the incident happened on Saturday, the boat's skipper Geir Maan said by telephone on Wednesday.
"We were on our way out to the whale watching area when we passed a whaling boat," Maan, the boat's skipper, told The Associated Press. Usually, whaling and tour boats maintain a distance between them.
"This time, we got close, and right when they were passing, I realized they had a minke whale in firing range," he said.
The whaling boat fired, and Maan said he later learned through the hunters that it had made a kill in front of the tourists.
"Some were pretty upset," he said. "Many thought it was awful to see."
The areas are popular with Norwegian whale-hunters, who so far have killed more than 400 of this year's quota of 1,052 minke whales, the smallest of the baleen whales at about 30 feet.
"This was definitely not what we came to see," Leontien Dieleman, of the Netherlands, was quoted as saying in Wednesday's Andoeyposten newspaper. "We wanted to see live whales."
Norway outraged many by resuming its commercial whale hunts in 1993, after a six-year break.
The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986, because some species were endangered. However, member countries can reject commission decisions. The Norway claims the whales it hunts are plentiful.
Hunters kill whales by shooting them with explosive-tipped harpoons, and then haul them back with a wire attached to the harpoon. The whales are then butchered on deck, and eaten in Norway as steaks and sausages.
"It was a little unlucky," Maan said of the incident, adding that the whalers usually wait until tour boats have passed to make a kill.
On the way back, the tourists also saw another whaling boat hauling a dead minke aboard, he said.
The hunting season lasts until Sept. 1.
Too bad things like this don't happen more often.
