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Greenland aim to increase whale hunt
At a recent press conference, Greenland's Directorate of Fisheries and Hunting announced that it will seek new whaling quotas during the Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) now being held in Anchorage, Alaska.
Greenland is asking the IWC for an annual quota of 10 humpbacks off West Greenland, in addition to at least 175 minkes and 19 fin whales. A further 12 minkes are being sought for East Greenland, the quota would remain fixed until 2012 when Greenland indicates that it may seek to kill as many as 30 humpbacks a year.
 Norway and Iceland are the only nations to conduct outright commercial whaling in defiance of the 1986 global moratorium. Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, kills more than 1,000 whales a year using a loophole that allows hunting for scientific research. Japan is also hoping that fishermen from four Japanese coastal towns will have permission from this year's IWC meeting to kill an unspecified number of minke whales under the same rule that permits indigenous people in Alaska, Siberia and Greenland to hunt whales. The IWC has never approved Japan's request for commercial coastal whaling before.
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