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TOKYO (AFP) — Japanese police on Friday arrested two Greenpeace members who had alleged corruption in the country's controversial whaling programme, accusing the activists of stealing whale meat. Police raided five locations, including the international environmental group's Japan headquarters in Tokyo, officials said. Police arrested Junichi Sato, 31, a prominent voice in the media against whaling, and fellow Greenpeace member Toru Suzuki, 41, a police spokesman said. Last month, Greenpeace said a lengthy investigation revealed that whalers on the taxpayer-backed hunt had taken home meat and sold it on the black market. It intercepted one box of meat and...

From Times OnlineApril 23, 2008 Executives harpooned by online 'whalers' Spies and conmen target bosses in e-mail attacks to install malicious software with access to most privileged data Jonathan Richards Corporate bosses have become the latest target of cyber-criminals, after a string of attacks in which senior management have been singled out to receive fraudulent e-mails. Internet fraudsters have taken to sending personally addressed e-mails to chief executives and other high-level executives with a view to installing malicious software on computers that have access to the most privileged company information. In the latest e-mail scam, known as "whaling" because it...

Russian-American research team examines origins of whaling culture Submitted by Kerynn Fisher Phone: 907-474-6941 04/02/08 Un'en'en archaeological site on the Chutkotka Peninsula.(Photos by Sarah Meitl)Detail on the ivory carving excavated during the summer 2007 field season. Recent findings by a Russian-American research team suggest that prehistoric cultures were hunting whales at least 3,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than was previously known. University of Alaska Museum of the North archaeology curator Daniel Odess presented the team's findings at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia last week. "The importance of whaling in arctic prehistory is clear....

3,000-year-old ivory carving depicts whaling scene From ANI London, April 1: Archaeologists working in the Russian Arctic have unearthed a remarkably detailed 3,000-year-old ivory carving that depicts groups of hunters engaged in whaling, which pushes back direct evidence for whaling by about 1,000 years. According to a report in Nature News, the ancient picture implies that northern hunters may have been killing whales 3,000 years ago and commemorating their bravery with pictures carved in ivory. Among the picture which depicts hunters sticking harpoons into whales, the site also yielded heavy stone blades that had been broken as if by some...

Arctic carving shows complexity of ancient hunting groups. Northern hunters may have been killing whales 3,000 years ago and commemorating their bravery with pictures carved in ivory. Archaeologists working in the Russian Arctic have unearthed a remarkably detailed carving of groups of hunters engaged in whaling — sticking harpoons into the great mammals. The same site also yielded heavy stone blades that had been broken as if by some mighty impact, and remains from a number of dead whales. All of this adds up to the probability that the site, called Un’en’en, holds the earliest straightforward evidence of the practice...

WHEN the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior was sunk by the French in the port of Auckland in 1985 the world was appalled. The bombing of the converted trawler was deplored as a violent and dangerous act: Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira was killed. But in a bizarre development, a founding member of Greenpeace has embraced the tactics of the French secret service. Canadian Paul Watson is a sinker of ships. Captain Watson left Greenpeace in 1977 and formed the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society -- a vigilante environmentalist group that has sunk 10 ships since 1979. Sea Shepherd's actions have split...

The crew of a Japanese harpoon ship holding a British anti-whaling protester captive insist they are treating him well - and have even offered him a meal of whale meat. The Japanese crew accused 36-year-old Mr Giles, from Cuckfield, West Sussex, and an Australian colleague of piracy after the pair stormed the whaling vessel Yushin Maru on Tuesday. Captain Paul Watson, who last year threatened to ram a Japanese whaling flagship, said: "Holding two hostages and demanding that the whaling protests stop before the men were handed over is nothing short of terrorism." As the stalemate dragged on, Japanese officials...

Japanese whalers seize British protester and tie him to harpoon shipBy RICHARD SHEARS - More by this author » Last updated at 23:00pm on 15th January 2008This is the moment a British anti-whaling activist was taken captive on a Japanese harpoon ship. Giles Lane appears to be crying out in pain as the sailors surround him and bind him. In the dramatic pictures his companion, an Australian, is wrapped around with rope and seems powerless to help. Scroll down for more... Captured: Giles Lane, left, appears to cry out while his Australian companion (right) looks on Colleagues of the pair...

TWO anti-whaling campaigners were last night taken hostage and tied to a mast in freezing conditions after a high seas clash with Japanese whalers in the Antarctic. The two crew members of the Sea Shepherd protest ship, Steve Irwin, Benjamin Potts and Giles Lane were tied to the radar mast of Japanese harpoon vessel Yushin Maru after the pair tried to hand over a petition calling for an end to whaling. The drama on the high seas unfolded shortly after 6.30pm when the two men tried to board the ship. A scuffle ensued before the pair was taken hostage and...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Greenpeace said Monday it has disrupted the Japanese whale hunt off Antarctica by chasing the fleet's whale processing factory ship out of the whaling zone. The six-vessel fleet "scattered and ran" early Saturday when it realized the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza was "heading toward them at high speed," Greenpeace expedition leader Karli Thomas told New Zealand's National Radio. The fleet's three whale hunter vessels "can't operate without the (factory ship) Nisshin Maru there to process the kill," she added.

Japan has confirmed that it will carry out its largest whaling programme in the South Pacific. The mission, expected to draw strong protests from environmentalists, will depart on Sunday and breaks a 44-year moratorium on hunting humpback whales. Japan's fisheries ministry said the fleet had instructions to kill up to 1,000 whales, including 50 humpbacks.

Makah whalers plead not guilty 05:28 PM PDT on Friday, October 12, 2007  By ROBERTA ROMERO / KING 5 News and Associated Press  SEATTLE - The five Makah Indian whalers accused of illegally killing a gray whale off of Neah Bay pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court in Tacoma. A federal grand jury in Seattle indicted the five on misdemeanor charges of conspiracy, unlawful taking of a marine mammal and unauthorized whaling. They could face up to a year in jail and $100,000 fine if convicted. They also face prosecution in tribal court. #main-video { background:#000; position:relative; top:0px; left:0px;...

CANBERRA: Australia has taken its battle against Japanese whaling in the Antarctic to the Internet, with a new YouTube campaign unveiled that targets Japanese children. “Can you imagine what life on Earth would be like without these magnificent creatures? Hundreds of years of whaling have nearly wiped them out,” Australia's Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull says in the video, subtitled in Japanese. Japan plans for the first time to hunt 50 humpback whales in the Antarctic over the coming summer, with the endangered animals currently migrating south along the Australian coast. Japan also plans to hunt 935 minke whales for scientific...

Makah tribesman "feeling kind of proud" he shot whale  01:20 PM PDT on Monday, September 10, 2007  KING5.com Staff and Associated Press Makah tribe members shoot, harpoon gray whale NEAH BAY, Wash. - The Coast Guard and National Marine Fisheries Service says the California gray whale killed by rogue whalers off Neah Bay could refloat as it decays. If it is found, the carcass would likely be evidence in a case against Makah tribal members. Coast Guard spokesman Shawn Eggert says buoys were cut from the whale when it sank Saturday, but it still carries a harpoon. National Marine...

Many fear effort to legalize new hunt may be derailed NEAH BAY -- One day after a group of frustrated Makah tribal members asserted treaty and historic rights by harpooning and killing a protected gray whale, tribal leaders condemned the hunt and vowed to prosecute the men. "Their action was a blatant violation of our law, and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Debbie Wachendorf, the Makah Tribal Council vice chairwoman. "The Makah Tribal Council denounces the actions of those who took it on themselves to hunt a whale without the authority of the...

NEAH BAY, Wash. — A California gray whale that was harpooned and shot with a machine gun off the western tip of Washington state has died, officials said. Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker said five people believed to be members of the Makah Tribe shot and harpooned the whale Saturday morning. Petty Officer Shawn Eggert said the whale disappeared beneath the surface in the evening, dragging buoys that had been attached to the harpoon, and did not resurface. A biologist working for the Makah Indian tribe declared it dead, Eggert said. Tribe members were being held by the Coast...

A gray whale died Saturday night, several hours after Makah tribal members harpooned and shot the animal. The men shot the whale without federal permission. Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker confirmed the harpooning by five tribal members. The whale was one mile east of Neah Bay, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, about a half-mile off shore The Coast Guard detained the five tribal members and questioned them, said Mark Oswell, a National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman. They later were released to the tribe, who placed them into custody at the tribal jail, according to the mother of...

Today: September 09, 2007 at 5:5:7 PDT Calif. Gray Whale Shot With Machine Gun NEAH BAY, Wash. (AP) - An injured California gray whale was swimming out to sea Saturday after being shot with a machine gun off the western tip of Washington state, officials said. Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker said five people believed to be members of the Makah Tribe shot and harpooned the whale Saturday morning. The extent of the whale's injuries were not immediately known. Tribe members were being held by the Coast Guard but had not been charged, said Mark Oswell, a spokesman for...

NEAH BAY, Wash. (AP) — An injured California gray whale was swimming out to sea Saturday after being shot with a machine gun off the western tip of Washington state, officials said. Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker said five people believed to be members of the Makah Tribe shot and harpooned the whale Saturday morning. The extent of the whale's injuries were not immediately known. Tribe members were being held by the Coast Guard but had not been charged, said Mark Oswell, a spokesman for the law enforcement arm of the National Marine Fisheries Service. A preliminary report said...

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 31 — A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court here ruled Friday that the Navy could use high-intensity sonar during military exercises in the Pacific, despite worries about its potentially lethal effect on whales and other marine mammals. The 2-to-1 decision, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, stays a temporary injunction on the sonar’s use that was handed down in early August by a federal district judge in Los Angeles. It is the latest turn in a lengthy seesaw battle between the military and environmental groups over this so-called midfrequency sonar,...

TOKYO (AP) - A Japanese whaling ship returned to port from Antarctica Friday with a catch of 508 whales, despite having its annual hunt cut short by a deadly fire. The Nisshin Maru's hunt had triggered a high-seas showdown with environmental groups even before the fire, and Greenpeace issued a fresh condemnation of Japan's whaling program, calling for the damaged ship to be retired. Tokyo says its whaling provides crucial data for the International Whaling Commission on populations and feeding habits of whales in Antarctic seas. The hunts are allowed by the commission, but environmental groups have long condemned the...

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A Japanese whaling fleet is heading home after high-seas brinksmanship with environmental groups and a deadly fire that crippled its mother ship and ended the hunt in the Antarctic hundreds of whales short of its goal. The return of the six-ship fleet brought to an early end this year's hunt, which had been scheduled to continue through March. Officials said it was the first time in the 20 years since the scientific hunts began that one had to end early. "We are very disappointed," Takahide Naruko, the head of the Fisheries Agency's Far Seas Division, said...

Pro-whaling nations call anti-whalers 'imperialists'; Japan suggests quitting IWC Pro-whaling nations issued a draft statement Thursday accusing anti-whaling countries of "imperialism" for imposing a ban on commercial hunts, and Japan threatened to quit the International Whaling Commission unless it is reformed. The statements came at the end of a three-day conference in Japan aimed at reforming the IWC. The meeting, however, was boycotted by half the commission's membership, including anti-whaling nations the United States, Britain and Australia. Japan and other pro-whaling countries argue the IWC is too polarized to be effective and has strayed from its original purpose of managing...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A Japanese whaling ship caught fire Thursday in icy waters near Antarctica and most crew members were safely evacuated but one was listed as missing, officials said. The Nisshin Maru sent out a distress call early Thursday after the fire broke out below decks, leaving the ship drifting without power, said Steve Corbett, a spokesman for Maritime New Zealand, whose country is nearest the area. Most of the 148-member crew were evacuated to three nearby Japanese whaling ships, leaving several behind to fight the blaze and search for crew member Kazutaka Makita,

“We’re not a protest organization, we’re a policing organization,” Paul Watson...of his Sea Shepherd... A pirate organization is more like it. Sporting the skull and crossbones, his black or battleship-gray ships sail menacingly through the waves. They are painted with the names of the boats Watson has rammed and sunk. The ships are fitted with...a concrete-filled bow made for ramming, and an attachment dubbed the “can opener” that can tear open a boat’s hull. In his book Earth Warrior, David Morris writes that Watson wears a long bowie knife at his side and carries AK-47s on board. He blasts Richard...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Two activists attacked a Japanese whaling ship with a bottle of acid and a smoke bomb Friday, slightly injuring two crew members after the vessel helped rescue the protesters from the icy Ross Sea off Antarctica, officials said. The activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society protest ship Farley Mowat disappeared during a confrontation with the Nisshin Maru but were found after about seven hours, with members of the Japanese whaling expedition assisting.

Last Update: Friday, February 9, 2007. 1:39pm (AEDT) Two activists missing after confronting Japanese whaling ship It is claimed two anti-whaling activists are missing in the Antarctic after a confrontation with a Japanese whaling ship. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ship Robert Hunter approached the Japanese ship early this morning. Sea Shepherd activists say they attacked the Japanese ship from inflatables with foul-smelling butylic acid. Two Sea Shepherd activists and their Zodiac inflatable are said to be missing. A search effort is under way.

Two missing Sea Shepherd activists have been found safe in the Antarctic, and hostilities have resumed against the Japanese whaling fleet. The whalers called a truce to help the hardline anti-whaling group in their search caused when the two aboard a Zodiac inflatable dinghy disappeared suddenly in fog in icy waters south-west of Australia. Sea Shepherd president Paul Watson told theage.com.au the inflatable's engine broke down, stranding Karl Nielsen, of Perth, Western Australia, and John Gravois of Los Angeles, USA. "We just kept going out from one point in a circular search until we found them," said Captain Watson, aboard...

Two anti-whaling activists, one an Australian, were feared missing in Antarctic waters after a clash with a Japanese whaling fleet. A search for the two men was under way after the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd confronted Japanese whaling vessels in the Ross Sea. International director of Sea Shepherd, Jonny Vasic, said anti-whaling activists from two ships had used high speed inflatables to try to disrupt the operations of the whaling fleet. But a mayday message was issued after radio contact was lost with two activists in an inflatable. One of the men was an Australian from Perth and the other...

Iceland has prompted international outrage by breaking a global ban on commercial whaling, ending a 20-year-old moratorium on the practice. Environmentalists have long insisted that whaling is not only barbarous but unjustified on any commercial grounds. However, the Icelanders, who launched a limited “scientific” whaling program in 2003, are undeterred, and the government has set an annual quota for both the fin whale and the more numerous minkes. Earlier this week hunters killed their first fin whale, which is officially listed an endangered species by the World Conservation Union. The hunters’ principal champion is the High North Alliance, a Norwegian-based...

Iceland has announced it is to resume commercial hunting of whales.Icelandic ships will take nine fin whales, an endangered species, and 30 minke whales each year. In a statement, the fisheries ministry said the nation was dependent on living marine resources, and would keep catches within sustainable limits. Norway is the only other country to hunt commercially; most are bound by a 20-year moratorium. Currently Iceland hunts minkes for "scientific research". The scientific plan will conclude at the end of the 2007 season, the government said. The announcement has angered conservation groups and anti-whaling nations, with some talking of a...

NINE of every 10 whales killed by Japan last summer were in Australia's Antarctic whale sanctuary. Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell said a report by the Japanese Whale Research Program confirmed 50 humpback whales would be killed next summer, as well as 850 Antarctic minkes and 50 fin whales. He said maps in the report showed 90 per cent of kills last summer were in the Australian sanctuary. "The killing of whales by Japan in the Australian sanctuary is in clear breach of International Whaling Commission policy," said Senator Campbell. He told The Australian he was particularly concerned by the...

Eager Norwegian whalers didn't do much to boost the image of their country's tourism industry this week, when they gunned down a whale before the eyes of tourists out on a whale-watching expedition. Norway's whaling industry has sparked international protest over the years. This week, the protests came from the whalers' own hunting grounds. Around 80 tourists had paid to go out on a whale-watching boat from Andenes, in northern Norway. Called "whale safaris" locally, the whale-watching has become an increasingly popular tourist attraction in recent years. While the tourists were admiring one of the great mammals of the sea,...

VANCOUVER, BC--(CCNMatthews - June 19, 2006) - Through a series of complex trade agreements with the European Union (EU), Norway and Iceland, which are not member nations, enjoy many of the same benefits for their own peoples and economies without incurring the same obligations of true EU member countries - including a commitment to end whaling, says The Humane Society of Canada (HSC). "One of the non-negotiable requirements of becoming a full EU member nation is an undertaking to cease involvement in any whaling operations. The European Union has now grown to include 25 countries and over 456 million people,...

FRIGATE BAY, St. Kitts — Small nations that support commercial whale hunting threw their support behind a resolution at the International Whaling Commission on Sunday to overturn a 20-year ban on the practice. If approved, it would mark a victory for pro-whalers after two days of narrow defeats that have left conservationists in charge of the 60-year-old organization. Dubbed the St. Kitts Declaration, the resolution was authored by six Caribbean nations. "This is the big one," said Chris Carter, New Zealand's Conservation Minister. "The whalers are hopeful that they have the numbers at last." Delegates from small Caribbean and African...

April 14, 2006 Somewhere in the North Atlantic Whaling season started this week, so Scooter and I headed to Norway to join some of our Greenpeace friends in protest against this barbaric event. One of these friends is my buddy "Cappy," and he graciously offered the use of his old 75-foot trawler he uses for ecological tours. We were touched by his generosity, and looked forward to an effective protest. We arrived at Sandefjord and proceeded to the docks where we met up with Cappy. His boat "Sea Slug" wasn't the most beautiful vessel there, but it was adequate for...

JAPANESE whalers are testing a high-tech fragmentation harpoon, equipped with an enlarged charge of high explosive, to help to slaughter endangered whales in the seas around Antarctica. The device is being used to kill humpback and fin whales, after Japan’s unilateral decision to break with an international consensus to protect them. The revelation comes just a week after Britain was held spellbound by attempts to rescue a bottlenose whale that became disoriented in the Thames. It died of dehydration. The explosive harpoons hurl shards of metal through the whale’s body to sever major nerves and blood vessels and so cause...

Japan's Fisheries Agency has welcomed Greenpeace's decision to stop obstructing its whale hunt in the Southern Ocean. The green group's departure follows a month of anti-whaling protests and clashes with a Japanese whaling fleet. With dwindling food and fuel supplies, Greenpeace ships Arctic Sunrise and Esperanza are heading for Cape Town. Japanese Fisheries Agency spokesman Hideki Moronuki is pleased the whaling mission will no longer be obstructed. "Although Greenpeace say that they're activities are peaceful, their activities are really dangerous and illegal," he said. Greenpeace expedition leader Shane Rattenbury has defended the risks taken by activists during the protests. "We...

A huge beached whale has been dumped outside the Japanese embassy in Berlin. in a Greenpeace anti-whaling protest. The controversial environmental activists hauled the fin whale to Berlin from the Baltic coast after finding it beached on a sandbank. The dead whale measured 17 metres (56 ft) long and weighed 20 tons. Activists are trying to demonstrate that there is no need to kill the mammals for research - as Japan does - because cadavers can be found. Japan is expected to kill 935 minke whales in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary during the first four months of 2006....

Japan on Wednesday released a video in a bid to prove Greenpeace targeted its whaling ship in an Antarctic collision this week and accused the environmentalists of violent tactics. Japan's main whaling body put a video on its website that showed Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise moving steadily forward before hitting the whaling ship Nisshin Maru, whose movement was impeded by another whaling vessel nearby. "It was a deliberate action to get media coverage," Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research said in a statement. "The Arctic Sunrise could have avoided this collision. Instead the skipper turned the boat into the path of the...

GREENPEACE has rejected fresh claims from Japan that activists harassing a whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean were responsible for a collision between two ships. Video released by The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research Video released by Greenpeace Oddly enough, this link wouldn't openThe Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise was involved in the collision with the Japanese whale processing ship Nisshin Maru on Sunday, putting a 1.5-metre dent in the Sunrise's bow and bending its forward mast. Japan has released a video in a bid to prove Greenpeace targeted its ship. The Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research said the video showed...

A STANDOFF between Japanese whalers and environmentalists has escalated with a conservation group claiming the Japanese Government has sent a warship to Antarctic waters to protect its fleet. The Washington-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said it had received a tip-off that a Japanese naval ship had been sent to the region to defend its whalers from protesters. It said it was concerned the warship would try to seize its vessel and those of the two Greenpeace crews shadowing the fleet through the Southern Ocean. "The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research has made an open accusation of piracy and eco-terrorism against...

Japanese warship 'to guard whalers' A STANDOFF between Japanese whalers and environmentalists has escalated, with a conservation group claiming the Japanese Government has sent a warship to Antarctic waters to protect its fleet. The Washington-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said it had received a tip-off that a Japanese naval ship had been sent to the region to defend its whalers from protesters. The group said it was concerned the warship would try to seize its vessel and those of the two Greenpeace crews shadowing the whaling fleet through the Southern Ocean. "The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research has made an...

Whalers slam Greenpeace pursuit JAPANESE whalers have called on Greenpeace to stop pursuing its fleet in the Southern Ocean, accusing the environmental organisation of engaging in piracy. In an open letter to Greenpeace, Institute of Cetacean Research director-general Hiroshi Hatanaka said the environmentalists were behaving dangerously in pursuing whaling ships. "Greenpeace's intention to highlight environmental degradation of the seas with the aim of protecting the marine environment is in itself laudable," Dr Hatanaka said in the letter. "However, your organisation's actual behaviour is nothing but an opinionated display of self-righteousness. "I strongly request Greenpeace stops pursuing our research vessels immediately...

Japan's whaling fleet has set sail for Antarctic waters where it will make its biggest catch in 20 years. The boats will aim to catch nearly 1,000 whales over the coming months. A global moratorium on commercial whaling has been in place since the 1980s, but Japan describes its programme as "scientific."

Kevin P. Casey for The New York Times"I never thought I'd see a whale hunt in my lifetime," said Arnie Hunter, who is vice president of the Makah Whaling Commission. NEAH BAY, Wash. - The whaling canoes are stored in a wooden shed, idle for the past six years. They were last used when the Makah Indians were allowed to take their harpoons and a .50-caliber rifle and set out on their first whale hunt since the late 1920's. There were eight young men in a canoe with a red hummingbird, a symbol of speed, painted on the tip....

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for shooting whales. Get a bunch of tourists, put them on boat, send it out to the North Pacific and let them fire off some rounds for an hour or two. Of course the ammunition used would be Kodak and Fuji stock, but it's a lot more humane than blowing them up. And it doesn't make the water go all red. With the exception of some Japanese and Scandinavian fisherman, a few Japanese scientists and the Japanese government, in the minds of most people -- whale hunting ranks up there with clubbing baby seals...

Prime Minister John Howard has ruled out forcibly preventing Japanese whaling ships from entering Antarctic waters. Pressure is mounting on the government to do more to halt the hunting of whales, including the famed humpbacks, in Antarctic waters. Japan is believed to have killed more than 400 whales, ostensibly for scientific research, in the Antarctic since a sanctuary was declared to protect the mammals. Documents submitted to the Federal Court by the government showed it had deliberately refrained from trying to stop Japanese whalers in its exclusive economic zone, newspaper reports said. Among the reasons given were that the whalers...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Residents of a remote Eskimo village Thursday grieved the loss of four people whose walrus-skin boat capsized in the Bering Sea during a whale hunt, and waited for calmer seas to head out in boats to look for the missing - including two children. They also vowed the tragedy won't keep them from continuing an ancient way of life. "We have a saying that whenever somebody happens to have an accident in the ocean we will never have to give up our tradition," said 79-year-old Conrad Oozeva, a lifelong resident of Gambell, 700 miles northwest of Anchorage....

OSLO (AFP) - Norway's whaling season began with hunters allowed by the government to kill up to 797 of the mammals this year, the highest quota set by the government in more than a decade in defiance of repeated international criticism.Thirty-one boats were expected to participate in this year's hunt, Fishing industry publication Fiskeribladet reported on its website.The government announced last December that it would increase the catch quota to 797 this year from 670 last year, even though whalers failed to meet that target, mainly due to backlogs at processing factories on land.This is the largest quota allowed since...