NORWAY ARRESTS 19 AFTER ANTI-WHALING PROTEST (fwd)

NORWAY ARRESTS 19 AFTER ANTI-WHALING PROTEST

Oslo, July 12 Reuters - Norway's coastguard arrested 19 people on Monday and detained a vessel belonging to Greenpeace after a daring North Sea protest against Norwegian whalers.

Greenpeace said 17 activists were arrested along with two independent journalists after it had launched four inflatable dinghies from the vessel Sirius to block two whaling vessels from reaching the whales.

Greenpeace spokesman Lars Haraldsen alleged that a rifle shot had been fired at a dinghy from one of the whaling boats, marking an escalation of the bitter contest between the hunters and the international environmental group.

''I believe this is the first time Norwegian whalers have taken a shot at us although we have been threatened before with knives, thrown into the sea and had a harpoon shot over our heads,'' Haraldsen told Reuters.

The coastguard said the arrests were made after the activists crossed into a 500-metre security zone around the whaling boats.

''They were asked to leave the security zone but refused and have been put under arrest. The people and the vessel are being brought to Stavanger,'' spokeswoman Grethe Skundberg Lovvig said.

She could not confirm that a rifle had been used against the demonstrators.

Four Greenpeace activists were arrested in June in a similar anti-whaling protest during which one protester was seriously injured in a collision between a coastguard vessel and a dinghy.

Norway, which resumed commercial whale hunting in 1993 in defiance of the International Whaling Commission's worldwide moratorium, has a quota of 753 minke whales this year, up from 671 for 1998. So far in 1999, 553 whales have been caught.

Hunters in northern Norway ended the season 10 days ahead of schedule on July 1 after the catch exceeded production capacity. The season in the North Sea is due to close on August 1.

Haraldsen said the market for whale meat in Norway had collapsed leaving a steadily growing mountain of blubber and meat. Norway does not export whale products in accordance with the international moratorium.

''People in Norway don't want whale meat any more. There is about 600 tonnes of blubber in storage and 10 tonnes of meat and some of this dates back to 1986,'' Haraldsen said.

The Norwegian Fisherman's Sales Organisation could not immediately give official figures for stocks of whale meat and products.

''There is hardly any meat in stocks and a few hundred tonnes of blubber,'' Per Rolandsen, spokesman for the organisation said.

That the norwegians dont eat meat is hardly the accurate description. That there is 600 tonnes of blubber is because the blubber has never been eaten by the Norwegians, its the Japanese, Icelanders and Greenlanders that eat blubber. Norway used to export the blubber and most of the meat to Japan. 10 tonnes of meat in stock is next to nothing and the annual Norwegian consumption of whale meat has never been higher than now that no meat is exported. The temporary stop in the hunt is due to short term market problems because of vacation in the processing plants that buy the meat from the whaling boats.

Gunnar Davidsson