Norwegian whalers resumed their controversial hunt last month, despite a collapsed market for whale blubber. The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986, but Norway began hunting again in 1993, flouting the ban. Norwegians have stockpiled some 800 tons of blubber in warehouses — “blubber mountain,” they call it — in hopes that the IWC will soon allow a resumption of international trade in whale meat, which would allow the blubber to be sold to Japan, where it is considered a delicacy. IWC Secretary Ray Gambell has suggested that the commission may lift its whaling ban within the next two years and begin allowing trade in whale products.
