The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) has discovered that a Norwegian company has exported more than four metric tons of whale products to Japan despite international trade of whale products being banned.
The organisation is calling on the United States to take Norway to task over the shipment.
A bill of lading shows that a shipment of 4,250kg of frozen whale products from Norwegian company, Myklebust Trading, left Ålesund in Norway in mid-February, and is scheduled to arrive with Japanese company Toshi International in Tokyo on 12 April.
International commercial trade in whale products is banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
AWI executive director Susan Millward has called on the US and other governments to act decisively to convince Japan to reject Norway’s recent shipment of whale products.
The February export of Norwegian whale meat to Japan was confirmed by Statistics Norway, which also shows that Norway received 14 metric tons of whale products from Iceland that same month.
Ms Millward added, It is time for the Obama administration to take a stand against commercial whaling, and to remind Norway and Iceland that trade embargoes remain a possibility if whale exports continue.
Mercator Media Ltd 2013