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The International Whaling Commission (IWC) gave indigenous Greenlanders the go-ahead to kill hundreds of whales, horrifying green groups, even as Iceland came under fire for contravening a ban on commercial hunting.
The commission's 65th meeting started in Slovenia on Monday with a 46-11 vote, with three abstentions, in favour of Greenland's proposed 207 kills per year from next year to 2018.
The issue was an agenda-topping item, with conservationists fearing much of the meat meant for indigenous subsistence was actually being sold.
"More than 800 whales were condemned today just in the Greenland vote," Wendy Higgins of the Humane Society International said on the first day of the controversy-laden gathering in Slovenia.
Greenland's hunters will be able to take 176 minke, 19 fin, 10 humpback and two bowhead whales per year.
The European Union and United States, having voted in favour of Greenland's quota, meanwhile led a call on Iceland to halt its commercial whaling programme, to which they expressed "strong opposition".
Australia, Brazil, Israel, Mexico and New Zealand also signed the protest letter, which the EU's executive commission said was delivered to Iceland's government. "We are not convinced that Iceland's harvest and subsequent trade of fin whales meets any domestic market demand or need; it also undermines effective international cetacean conservation efforts," according to the text, made public in Brussels.
Iceland and Norway issue commercial permits under objections or reservations registered against the IWC's 1986 whaling moratorium. Iceland caught 134 fin whales and 35 minkes last year, according to the IWC, and Norway 594 minkes.
Greenland's hunts are allowed under a special indigenous subsistence dispensation that also applies to whale-eating communities in North America, Russia, and the Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Yet animal groups fear the Greenland quota is being abused. "We are concerned that the new IWC quota will give Greenland more whale meat than its native people need for nutritional subsistence and that the surplus will continue to be sold commercially, including to tourists," said the Animal Welfare Institute.
The institute said that while Greenland claimed to need about 800 tonnes of whale meat a year for subsistence, studies have shown that the Inuit population consumes closer to 500 tonnes.
At the IWC's last gathering, in 2012, Denmark's bid for a higher quota for former colony Greenland was rejected after a bust-up with the rest of the EU.
The EU approved the bid this time, which helped push it to the three-quarters vote majority required. The no voters were mainly Latin American countries.
Observers had predicted the quota was likely to be approved, with the EU and US keen to bring Greenland back under official IWC control.
Despite having no quota, Greenland hunters last year killed nine fin, eight humpback and 181 minke whales.
Among the other contentious agenda items, the four-day commission meeting must still debate Japan's controversial plans to resume Antarctic whaling.
The UN's highest court found in March that Japan had abused a hunting allowance for purposes of scientific research.
Japan cancelled its 2014/15 Antarctic hunt after the ruling, but a fisheries official said his country would "explain its plan to resume research whaling in the next season [2015-16]" at the IWC meeting. Japan killed more than 250 minkes in last hunting season.


IWC gives indigenous Greenlanders go-ahead to kill hundreds of whales

Greenland hunters can now kill up to 10 humpback whales a year under the new ruling by the IWC. Photo: National Geographic

Greenland hunters can now kill up to 10 humpback whales a year under the new ruling by the IWC.Photo: National Geographic

Japan slaughters first dolphins in widely-condemned annual cull

Fishermen, on a boat with their fresh kill, navigate blood-filled waters in the coastal town of Taiji in Japan's Wakayama prefecture, during last year's annual dolphin cull. Photo: AP

This photo from last year's cull shows dolphins being trapped in the cove during the selection process. Photo: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

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Green groups horrified by decision to permit indigenous slaughter of 200 animals a year for food, amid fears much of the meat is being sold


The International Whaling Commission (IWC) gave indigenous Greenlanders the go-ahead to kill hundreds of whales, horrifying green groups, even as Iceland came under fire for contravening a ban on commercial hunting.


IWC gives indigenous Greenlanders go-ahead to kill hundreds of whales

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Green groups horrified by decision to permit indigenous slaughter of 200 animals a year for food, amid fears much of the meat is being sold

Green groups horrified by decision to permit indigenous slaughter of 200 animals a year for food, amid fears much of the meat is being sold