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WDC2023-007 NMLC Release (16)

Seal Rescued in Marshfield Released Back Into The Wild

For Immediate Release, May 31, 2023 PLYMOUTH, MA - A young male grey seal that...

Norway ups whale kill numbers and removes whale welfare protections

The whaling season in Norway has begun on the back of disturbing announcements from the...
Image taken from an unmanned hexacopter at >100ft during a research collaboration between NOAA/SWFSC, SR3 and the Coastal Ocean Research Institute. Research authorized by NMFS permit #19091.

Southern Resident orca petition to list them under Oregon Endangered Species Act advanced

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted today to advance a petition seeking to protect...
Hysazu Photography

WDC and Conservation Partners Continue to Seek Oregon Endangered Species Protection for Southern Resident Orcas

On Friday, April 21st, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will determine whether the petition...

Norway's whaling season begins

April 1st saw the start of the whaling season in Norway. Despite a widely-accepted international moratorium on commercial whaling, Norway and Iceland continue to hunt minke whales in the North Atlantic as they objected to the agreement. 

WDC and other groups are calling on the EU to take further action to reinforce its opposition to the hunts ahead of this year’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Brazil in September.

“The member states of the European Union must no longer tolerate commercial whaling in European waters. We expect concrete political and diplomatic steps towards Iceland and Norway,” said Astrid Fuchs, Programme Lead at WDC today.

Both Norway and Iceland are struggling to maintain interest in whaling as demand for whale meat falls and fewer whalers take part.

Norway’s government has increased the quota for its whalers to 1278 whales from 999 last year. This is despite the fact that the whalers only managed to kill 432 whales in 2017, the lowest total for 20 years. The majority of whales killed in recent years were female and many of them were pregnant.

In Iceland, where much of the demand for whale meat comes from tourists, a quota of 209 whales has been set even though only 46 and 17 minke whales were killed in the last two years. Even more controversially, the influential whaling millionaire, Kristjan Loftsson has a quota for 154 endangered fin whales. However, he has refrained from whaling for the past two years due a lack of export orders from Japan.

Please support WDC’s efforts to stop whaling.