Norway’s ‘Cruel’ Minke Whale Tests to go Ahead, Despite Global Outrage
The study is facing backlash from more than 50 international scientists and wildlife experts who claim the tests could risk the safety of both the animals and humans involved.
Plans to capture and conduct tests on minke whales in Norway are set to take place despite outrage from more than 50 international scientists and wildlife experts who believe it puts the whales at unnecessary risk.
Scientists will use nets to capture a dozen young minke whales off the coast of Norway. The animals will then be hoisted between two rafts for up to six-hours, and electrodes will be placed under their skin to gauge how their brains respond to varying frequencies of ocean noise. The minke whales will then be satellite-tagged before being released back into the sea.
The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment is conducting the tests with approval from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, and financial support from U.S. oil and energy authorities, fishery authorities, and the U.S. Navy, according to the Evening Standard.
Researchers say the study will help measure how the whales are impacted by noise pollution including naval sonar and noise from oil and gas exploration.
"This has been a long-standing issue, this lack of information on how sensitive the hearing of these large whales is," said the project's principal investigator Dorian Houser, of the National Marine Mammal Foundation. "We're trying to get the first measurements to empirically show what they hear and how sensitive to sound they are," he said.
But scientists and wildlife experts argue that the tests are cruel and unnecessary, claiming the tests could risk the safety of both the animals and humans involved and calling for the experiments to be scrapped.
“This experiment is both ill-conceived and unnecessary – we already know that human-made noise in our ocean damages and disturbs whales,” Vanessa Williams-Grey, policy manager at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, told The Independent. “We have grave concerns about the animal welfare implications. The risk of capture myopathy and other consequences of an extremely stressful event like this are high.”
A group of 50 scientists, vets, and wildlife groups from around the world have signed a statement of concern to condemn Norway's decision, urging Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg to halt the trials. The group has also promoted a petition for the general public to sign, garnering over 64,000 signatures.
"[T]he safety and welfare risks (for both humans and whales) are too great: it is simply not possible to guarantee that entrapped minke whales can be handled in a manner which is safe for all those involved," the statement reads.
Despite this, the tests are still set to take place.
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