Feature story - 4 May, 2002
An entire flotilla of fifty Greenpeace activists escorted the Kiel-Oslo ferry out of port today, to protest Norway's imminent whaling expedition.
Ellingsen factory, biggest whale meat and blubber storage in Norway.
Activists took to four traditional sailing vessels, six smaller
boats, 12 canoes and even small inflatables, many wearing survival
suits to brave the cold, fog, rain of spring weather in northern
Germany.
The protesters' banners read "Stop Whaling" to draw attention to
Norway's planned whaling expedition, expected to begin within days
in the North-East Atlantic and the North Sea. The whalers want to
kill 674 minke whales between mid-May and the end of August.
Greenpeace opposes the hunt, as it does the Norwegian
government's plans to export the whale meat and blubber to
Japan.
These exports would contravene CITES (the convention on
international trade in endangered species) which strictly prohibits
trade in whale products beyond a country's borders.
Norway and Japan do not accept this trade ban. Both countries
have declared their opposition to this CITES resolution by "taking
reservations", so that they do not feel legally bound by the trade
ban.
Japan and Norway are also the only countries to have disregarded
the 1986 IWC (International Whaling Commission) ban.