Box 24C Sealing and whaling in Europe

Seal hunting and whaling have been, and in some places still are, important parts of the fisheries of some Northern European countries (notably Iceland, Norway and Russia).

Cetaceans: cetaceans are normally classified as large or small. The first group is composed of baleen and sperm whales, while the second includes small toothed whales and dolphins. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) manages large cetaceans on a global basis, while populations of small cetaceans are not often considered by traditional fishery management bodies. For management purposes, the IWC divides the North Atlantic stocks into three sub-stocks: western stock, central stock (Iceland, Jan Mayen) and eastern stock (North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea). The main whale species in the northeast Atlantic are: blue (Balaenoptera musculus), fin (Balaenoptera physalus), sei (Balaenoptera borealis), minke (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) and humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) whales. Cetaceans are among the most vulnerable to overfishing because of their slow growth and low fecundity, and possibly also through the link between social behaviour and reproductive success. During the earlier part of the twentieth century, some of these species came very close to extinction, and for some species, even with protected status, the situation is still precarious (eg, blue and humpback whales).

In 1986 the IWC imposed a complete ban on all commercial whaling. Norway has now come to the conclusion that the stocks of minke whales are sufficient to withstand a certain level of hunting (Central Bureau of Statistics of Norway, 1993). Thus, Norway decided to resume commercial hunting of minke whales in 1993, although the IWC had not lifted its ban.

Sealing: in the past seals have been hunted as intensively as whales in the Nordic region. Several arctic pinniped species, including the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) and the walrus (Odobenus rosmarus), are protected, following heavy overexploitation. In recent years, restrictions and slackening demand have also reduced the scale of hunting for species of seals that are still comparatively common. Seals hunted in Norway are mainly the harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) and the hooded seal (Cystophora cristata). Currently, pups are no longer killed in either the Jan Mayen area or the White Sea, and the greater part of the catch has consisted of harp seals that are one year old or more (Central Bureau of Statistics of Norway, 1993). In Iceland the catch of seals consists mainly of the young of both the common seal (Pocha vitulina) and the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) (Icelandic Ministry for the Environment, 1992). Even if the pressure from hunting has eased, the populations of seals in Northern European waters are still threatened by toxic pollutants (eg, PCBs) and virus epidemics, possibly related to human activities (eg, the 1988 phocine distemper virus in the Kattegat and Skagerrak): both are cause for concern.

See also the case study on monk seals in the Mediterranean in Chapter 9.