Anger as Norway hikes whale kill

WATCHING THE WHALES: Australia is protesting at Norway's plan to increase the number of whales it kills each year.

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The Australian Government has condemned a decision by Norway to sharply escalate its whale kill while attempts are underway to hammer out an international peace deal over the hunts.

Oslo's Fisheries Minister, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, told the Norwegian Minke Whalers Union at the weekend that next year's quota would be set at 1286 animals, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

The 45 percent increase comes despite the Norwegians killing only 484 of a permitted 885 whales this year, taken under the country's registered objection to the 1986 global moratorium on commercial whaling.

Conservation Society chief executive Chris Butler-Stroud said such a huge quota defied logic and any pretence of sound management.

''Norwegian whalers haven't taken their full quota in years, as demand for whale meat has dropped and no one is buying,'' Mr Butler-Stroud said. ''This is nothing more than the empty rattling of harpoons, and it is clear these quotas are being set more for political show than anything else.''

The timing of the increase was described by Australian Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett as unhelpful, coming as it did with talks working towards a peace deal in the International Whaling Commission.

An inner group of 12 Whaling Commission countries, including Australia and Japan, is meeting in the latest round of the so-far fruitless talks.

At the same time, Mr Garrett said, Japan's whaling fleet was heading to the Southern Ocean for the 2009-10 summer hunt, with Tokyo yet to say how many whales it intends to take.

''Australia has been engaging in IWC reform discussions in good faith but these recent developments are cause for considerable concern,'' he said. ''If we do not achieve genuine progress, the Australian Government will consider all options, including international legal action.''

Sea Shepherd's Operation Waltzing Matilda begins today when the group's flagship, Steve Irwin, leaves Fremantle to try to shut down the Japanese whaling fleet's operations.

- © Fairfax NZ News