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Agriculture Minister's whaling comments spark controversy.

Edition: 34
28 Tolven 1585
Written by Dimitra Krum



Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Nicolai Thorsen.

Esborg, Oslanburg | Following comments made by Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Nicolai Thorsen at an appearance in Esborg, a running controversy over the ethics and health implications of the whale hunt in northern Oslanburg has been reignited.

"The whale hunt is vital to the livelihood of many people who live in small towns on the north coast.", Thorsen said. "It is also entirely sustainable and actually produces less greenhouse gases than raising cattle for beef. In fact it would be wise to raise the catch quota, which has been at about 500 for many years, to reflect the size of the whale population, and to export whale meat to countries which have poor food security and nutrition."

Thorsen went on to express doubts that the risk of poisoning from high levels of mercury in the flesh and blubber of marine mammals is at the level scientific studies have suggested, contradicting a renewed recommendation issued by the Ministry for Health and Social Welfare last week warning that consumption of whale meat be limited to no more than one serving a month and that young children and pregnant women should refrain from consuming it all, as well as drawing concern from health experts.

"It definitely concerns me that the Agriculture Minister does not sufficiently understand the science involved in food safety.", said Liva Hald, a brain surgeon and health advisor to the environmental group Greeslan. "It has been definitively demonstrated that there are dangerous levels of mercury in the blubber, flesh, and particularly organs of cetaceans. Studies have also shown that their is an unusually high occurrence of Parkinson's disease in many communities on the northern coast. There is a clear and worrying correlation."

Whales have been hunted in northern Oslanbuurg for thousands of years. The whale catch is largely commercial and presently limited by law to 564 animals a year, set when commercial whaling resumed in 1532. Though some coastal communities, communally catch nearly 2,000 animals taken annually being driven ashore by local fishermen and distributed among the community.

In the debate over whaling, both sides have argued environmental data supports their case. The opposition to whaling has also centered on ethical concerns over the methods used to kill the whales (shot with explosive-charge harpoons in the case of larger catches, driven ashore by boats and killed by quickly cutting the spinal cord with a specialized "whale knife" in the case of smaller species) and cetacean intelligence, while supporters have characterized opposition by international environmental groups as a form of cultural imperialism.