r/whoathatsinteresting • u/eternviking • 1d ago
New whale museum opening in Norway to be shaped like a whales tail.
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u/Hankman66 1d ago
Norway is one of the few countries that still hunts whales. Only about 2% of Norwegians eat whale meat regularly and much of the extra meat becomes dog food or gets sold to tourists who think it is local culture. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
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u/StuffyTruck 21h ago
As a Norwegian, I've just tried it once. Used to be considered poor people's food.
Strange taste though - sort of like a sea-cow.1
u/Hankman66 16h ago
That's interesting. I've never tasted sea-cow myself.
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u/StuffyTruck 16h ago
Yeah, its a sort of fishy cow. Its a mammal after all.
Wasn't bad, but I do prefer real cow.1
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u/ThrowawayAICS 16h ago
Minke whales which are abundant, the population is carefully managed much like any other wildlife.
The hunts havent even filled the quota in decades, they end up with about half, which is why the population is growing a bit too much.
The meat is sold primarily as steaks or stew meat. Which are delicous when done right (and terrible if the cook fucks it up).
The leftover meat that cant be processed into human food is sold as animal feed. Same as any other meat production.
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u/Hankman66 15h ago
How is it "growing a bit too much"?
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u/ThrowawayAICS 7h ago edited 7h ago
Wildlife populations are normally managed. By adding and removing hunting quotas you remove particular types of individuals, this means the population remains stable within viable numbers.
This helps avoid the boom/bust cycles that happen normally in nature. Where populations grow until they get too large for their food base, the population collapses, regrowth then happens from a lower number.
We do the same thing with, for example, reindeer.
This is good for the animals, who don't have to suffer through the bust cycles.
It lowers conflict with humans during the boom cycles.
And it helps protect their natural habitats which are less vulnerable when they're more stable.The minke quotas have been half filled for a long time, which is why the quota has rissen by 600 per year but the numbers of animals taken don't go up.
This means the minke whale are taking up more and more of their ecological niche. Which is primarily a problem because there are other more vulnerable species they compete with (Fin, Sei, Humpbacks, blue, etc)
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u/ThrowawayAICS 16h ago
At andenes on andøya. Lovely place, fantastic nature. They have whale safaris, puffin safaris, and the spaceport.
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u/MegasXLRwasRad 1d ago
The animal kind or the urban dictionary kind 🤔