91av

NORWAY may be catching too many minke whales each year, because they could be
counting each animal twice when they estimate minke numbers and decide on their
whaling quota, according to a study by Scottish researchers.

The Norwegians—and the International Whaling Commission—estimate
that there are about 112,000 minke whales in the north-east Atlantic. Norway is
allowed to catch 549 animals a year, and they want to raise that quota.

But the real population could be less than half the Norwegian estimate, says
Chris Parsons of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, based on the Isle of
Mull.

“The data they are using could potentially lead to an overestimate of how
many whales there are,” Parsons told 91av.

Norway estimates the whale population by counting how many animals surface in
a given area during the summer months. To avoid counting the same animal twice,
they assume that each whale surfaces about once every 80 seconds. But this
figure is based on data collected in October.

However, Parsons and his colleagues at the Trust and Aberdeen University have
found that minke whales off north-west Scotland surface every 40 seconds in June
and July, probably because they feed at different depths in the summer. This
means the Norwegians could be recording the same whale as two separate animals,
making their population estimates double what they should be.

“The whalers call for larger quotas—they want to kill 2000 a year,”
says Richard Page of Greenpeace. But that level of hunting between the 1930s and
1980s probably halved the population.