Date: Thu, 22 May, 1997
Norway Whalers Sue Their Government
By DOUG MELLGREN
Associated Press Writer

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Already facing death threats, sabotage and protests from outsiders, Norway's whale hunters picked a fight at home Tuesday by suing the government over a five-year gap in the hunt.

Norway resumed its controversial whale hunts in 1993 after a grudging five-year break. The renewed commercial hunt brought furious protests, boycott threats and attacks on whaling boats.

Despite the government's heavy spending in defense of the unpopular hunts, the whalers claim the state owes them millions for giving in to pressure in the past.

Twenty-eight whalers and four whale meat processing companies sued the government for 60 million kroner ($8.5 million) in losses during the years the commercial hunt was banned. They were appealing a loss in a lower court on the claim.

The whalers claim there was no reason for the ban, since Norway is not bound by a 1986 commercial whaling prohibition imposed by the International Whaling Commission. Commission rules allow members to reject its decisions, making Norway's hunt legal.

Norway says minke whales are plentiful, and should be hunted to protect fish stocks and provide income for coastal villages. But if the minke, the smallest of the baleen whales at about 30 feet were never endangered, then there was no reason to stop the hunt after the 1987 season, the whalers argued in Oslo district court on Tuesday.
"Despite a stated political goal to allow whaling as long ecologically responsible -- which it was -- the state stopped the hunts," the whalers's attorney Kristian Herslov said in court.

"Why? Because the threat from the United States of a trade boycott was too much," Herslov said. He said the government must pay compensation for illegally banning the hunt.

Norway does not admit that boycott threats from the United States and other countries forced it to call off the hunt after the 1987 season. It said it was taking a break to reassess the stocks.

This year's hunt started on May 2, with a government-set limit of 580 minke whales, an increase of one-third from 1996.



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