OSLO, May 23 (Reuter) - Norwegian whalehunters have harpooned the first whale of the country's much-criticised commercial whaling season, the national news agency NTB reported on Thursday. It said the 5,000-kilo minke whale was landed in the southern part of Kristiansand by the whale boat Senet. NTB quoted Senet skipper Arvid Enghaugen, whose ship has a quota of nine whales this year, as saying it was shot in the North Sea on Wednesday. The whaling season began on Monday, 20th.
The United States protested last week against Norway's whale hunting plans, saying it deeply opposed commercial whaling because it had driven some stocks to near extinction. James Baker, U.S. representative to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), noted that world nations imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982 under IWC auspices. He said the United States recognised that Norway lodged a formal objection to the moratorium and therefore was not technically bound by it, but he called on Oslo "to join the nations of the world in refraining from whaling."
The United States believes the process by which Norway calculated its quota of 425 minke whales lacks adequate international oversight since it has not been considered by the IWC's scientific committee or by the commission itself.