WHY WE MADE THIS FILM
We wanted to research exactly why Norway continues to buck world trends by continuing to maintain a whaling industry and its impact on whale stocks and our oceans.
THE ISSUE
Norway has taken the approach that minke whales are a Norwegian resource to manage as Norway sees fit, but as a migratory species, minke whales cover vast amounts of ocean during their breeding cycles and pass through the territorial waters of several countries – including off the Yorkshire coast of the UK – as they take their yearly journeys between their feeding grounds in the north and breeding grounds in the south.
WHAT WE WANTED TO ACHIEVE
ESPA discovered that this same population of minke whales was being hunted by Norway’s fleet. As one of only three industrial whaling nations left on Earth, and with Iceland’s whaling industry in apparent terminal decline, ESPA decided to research exactly why Norway continued to maintain a whaling industry when comparable historic whaling nations (including the UK and USA) ceased several decades ago when it became clear that whaling has having an enormous negative impact on whale stocks.
