Greenland cuts fin whale catch

The Greenland Home Rule Government says it will voluntarily reduce of the number of fin whales hunted every year off the West Greenland coast.

In a surprise announcement at this week’s International Whaling Commission meeting, Rasmus Frederiksen, Greenland’s minister of Fisheries and Hunting said the quota of whales will be cut from 19 to 10 animals in 2006 and 2007.

“The voluntary reduction of catch limits in Greenland will cost us 90 tonnes of meat, blubber and mattak annually,” he said “This voluntarily reduction will be a serious loss to our society, and especially for many of the small hunter communities in Greenland that are highly dependent on those resources.”