Eco
Volume LXIV · Panama City, Panama · No. 4 · Thursday July 5, 2012
Acrobat .pdf of issue
Greenland’s $2,000 Harpoons!
Denmark revealed during Tuesday’s discussion of their new quota request for aboriginal subsistence whaling (ASW) that the harpoons used to kill whales cost $2,000.
Each!
For this reason, Greenland subsistence hunters must, in violation of IWC ASW rules, sell whale meat to meet the high costs of the exploding projectiles used to kill the whales. At least, that is the latest excuse from Denmark in support of commercial sale of whale meat in stores and restaurants throughout Greenland.
The delegate of Denmark helpfully explained that there was no requirement for the Greenland hunts to be humane or lead to quick deaths. In fact, he asserted, “we could kill whales with a baseball bat, if we wanted toÉ” Instead, Greenland chooses to use expensive grenade harpoons to kill the whales, in order to be “more humane.”
ECO notes that Greenland could be even MORE humane and save much money by refraining from killing whales in the first place.