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Description and Analysis of the use of Cold Harpoons in the Norwegian Minke Whale Hunt in the 1981,1982 and 1983 Hunting Seasons
Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica volume 36, pages 103–110 (1995)
Abstract
Until 1984, cold harpoons, i.e. harpoons with no detonating device, were used to hunt minke whales in Norway. To investigate the effectiveness of such harpoons and compare them with alternatives, data on kills using cold harpoons were collected as part of a project dealing with alternative killing techniques for whales. Data on 353 whale kills were collected in 1981–83. The criteria used to determine the time of death were cessation of flipper movement, that the mandible relaxed, or that the whale hung immobile from the harpoon line. These criteria do not take into account any movements caused by spinal reflexes. About 17% of the animals died instantaneously (≤10 s). The median survival time was 570 s. Animals died most rapidly if hit in the brain, heart or major blood vessels. If only the lungs were injured, minke whales died less rapidly than terrestrial mammals. For whales that did not die immediately, shooting range, animal size and the angle of the shot all influenced the time to death. The efficiency of cold harpoons could be improved, but their use was no longer considered acceptable, and they were replaced by harpoons with penthrite grenades in 1984.
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Acknowledgments
The author is very grateful to Dr. Torger Øritsland, Institute of Marine Research in Bergen for his help in allocating money to start the research work on whale killing methods in Norway and for his encouragement and his advices during the field work. Thanks are also due to the inspectors who collected data on the killing process in addition to their normal duties, and to Ms. Lisbeth Jensen of the College of Veterinary Medicine in Oslo who punched in the data from the hunt. The author also wishes to thank Dr. Lars Walløe of the Department of Physiology, University of Oslo, for his help in the statistical analysis of the data and for reading and valuable commenting on the manuscript and Ms Alison J. Coulthard, who corrected the English.
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Øen, E.O. Description and Analysis of the use of Cold Harpoons in the Norwegian Minke Whale Hunt in the 1981,1982 and 1983 Hunting Seasons. Acta Vet Scand 36, 103–110 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03547707
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03547707