Greenland whale hunt 'commercial'

Animal welfare campaigners say Greenland's whaling, held under rules permitting subsistence hunting, has become too commercial in character.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) found that a quarter of last year's catch was traded for profit through a private food company. International Whaling Commission (IWC) rules allow hunting where there is a nutritional and cultural need. The IWC annual meeting gets underway next week in Santiago, Chile. WSPA campaigners are presenting their report this week to a preliminary meeting of the organization’s committee on aboriginal (or subsistence) whaling. Greenland has been on the slippery slope towards commercial whaling for years, and now, demonstrably, they've crossed the line," said WSPA's marine mammals manager Claire Bass. "The IWC has heard anecdotally about these processing operations, but this is the first time it's been quantified, so we're expecting it to be explosive," she told.

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