Norway fishermen post record-breaking whale haul

Fishermen in Norway have caught 729 whales this year, the highest number since it resumed the controversial practice in defiance of international pressure, industry sources said on Monday. ‘The season is more or less finished and it's been very good,’ said Svein Ove Haugland, deputy director of the Norwegian Fishermen's Sales Organization. The eventual figure may increase slightly before the season's end but is already the highest since 1993, when Norway resumed whaling despite a worldwide moratorium, which Oslo officially rejected. In 2013, Norway caught 590 rorqual whales, far higher than the previous year. Yield for 2014 remains far below the country's annual quota of 1,286 whales. Norway is the only country alongside Iceland which commercially hunts whales. Whaling in Japan is officially for scientific purposes, but large amounts of the meat ends up in markets, according to AFP.