David @ Tokyo

Thanks for the link David. It'll make for good reading this evening.
Did you ever get my email? I still have that book waiting to be sent to you.

Any insights into what's going on with the Taiji harvests?
They seem to be replacing the Faeroese as the latest drive hunt to be targeted with demonization.
 

Thanks David , I will have a look at those papers, btw I saw that Nunavut was going to kill 3 Bowheads...

Some Norwegian news:

http://annimal.bloggsida.se/diverse/12-minke-whales-killed-in-norway

( My blog is a little bit sloppy , haven't had time to improve the blog...)
 

Once again, local Inuit Bowhead knowledge has proven the scientists wrong.

The Inuit are actually pushing for quotas to be removed on the bowheads as per the rights enshrined in their constitutionally protected Land Claims Agreement.

Bowhead recovering:
http://www.sikunews.com/art.html?catid=5&artid=6309

Nunavut to hunt three Bowhead:
http://www.sikunews.com/art.html?catid=5&artid=6315

Good on them!
They've been patient and methodical whilst being maligned and abused by the animal fundamentalist lobby and have now won.

I'm sure the Bowhead maqtaq will taste all the sweeter for it this year.
 

Hi guys,

One of the papers recently uploaded to the IWC SC site suggests an Antarctic minke whale abundance estimate of around 450,000 (from the most recent third CP series). This is down from the earlier CP II estimate of around 700,000.
An estimate from another method produced last year was around 550,000, IIRC. This method is still under consideration too, as I read it.

Of course it remains to be seen whether these estimates are agreed by the SC (I won't be surprised if they aren't), but in any case it seems we're looking at an estimate of around 500,000.
 

Hi,
It would be great if you could post the most important news from the IWC , since personally currently I have not much time for whales. ( Birds take most my time these days).

Norwegian whaling news. Whaling fleet has been downscaled from about 32 whaling boats to 20, but whalers say the think the minke population might be on a rise. We will see...

There was an interesting netpoll in Lofotposten, about 20% said they won't buy whale meat and about 60 % said they were going to...
 

FYI,
The fourth minkw whale was shot in Faxafloi yesterday , Iceland .

There will be more whaling news from Iceland soon on my blog ( which now is updated)