Whaling in Norway - A tradition
Whaling is somewhat of a controversial topic that has been talked about a lot within groups like greenpeace, IFAW and WWF.
Whaling is still common in Norway, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland and Japan.
In Norway, whale meat has been a part of the Norwegian food table since the 9th century and it's a part of our coastal traditions.
Minke whale, the target for Norwegian Whalers
Minke whale pulled on board
The finished product prepared on the dinner table
The whale is killed by a explosive harpoon which is shot into the whales side. The explosive within the harpoon is known as penthrite, a explosive that structurally is very similar to nitroglycerin.
In the year 2000 the improved Whale grenade-99 became mandatory and combined with better training and increased the instant death ratio to 80%.
For the last 20% the whale is hauled on board the ship and shot by the crew, in some rare cases a second harpoon may be fired.
Whaling has been a part of our coastal tradition since the viking age and with better technology the amount of whales killed for the sake of meat, oil and blubber has increased even if recruitment within whaling has been decreasing.
In 2012 Norway topped the list over annual whale killings.
Source : http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-08/whales-killed-in-2012-or-2011/5375856
What do you think of whaling?
Have you tasted it?
I think in ways it's wrong, but in other ways, not so much..
I believe, for me, it's mostly situational.
Despite my feelings about it, I'd still be interested to try it out and see how the taste fits my palette.
Interesting article and it's nice to see a post about whales that isn't kissing ass in an attempt to get an upvote from the steemit "whales." :)
Thankfully technology have increased the instant death ratio as i mention in the article, unnecessary suffering is wrong no matter what specie.
Thanks for the comment @kainmarx :)
That's nice, to a degree ;), but I will be posting something fairly soon that I think you should check out about a theory of a way we can sustain without having to kill animals. I think I can find a nice happy medium to where we can get our meats without having to kill for them. :D
lol yeah!
That looks delicious! What would you compare the flavour too?
Also don't let the whales on here see this ;P
Well the meat is very tender if prepared correctly, it tastes more like beef than fish. If you are unlucky you might get hints of a fish oily taste.
It's hard to describe or draw any similarities to other meats cause its kind of special in flavor, would advice you to at least try it if you get the chance! :)
I think I will if I ever get the chance!
I haven't tried it but I think it must me awesome @harand
It tastes good when prepared correctly. As a steak, prepared on the grill it's magnificent.
Seem tasty :)
Protect the nature, whales remains very little
Actually the Minke whale population is intact according to the IUCN Red List.
So the population is not threatened and it's growing.
Totally against it - see this link from the IFAW this year - Norway is now hunting a higher proportion of breeding females which could put the long-term survival of minke whales in the North Atlantic in severe danger! -
But still the Minke whale population is expanding and it has been since 1983. The Minke whale population is estimated to be around 800.000, the whale reaches sexual maturity in about 7 years and usually produces one calf every 2 years.
I had no idea anyone actually ate whale meat!
It's consumed in some countries still, often looked upon as a delicacy.
In the 80's, at least in the coastal regions of Norway it was consumed regularly as it was pretty cheap at that time.
very interesting and controversial topic @harand . I'm not a vegetarian, but I think that everything should be within reasonable limits