Monday, May 3, 1999 Published at 07:18 GMT 08:18 UK
Norway fears whaling backlash
Opponents say harpooning whales is a cruel way to kill
Norwegian police are on the alert for protests from animal welfare activists, as the country's whaling season gets under way on Monday.
A BBC correspondent says the beginning of this year's whaling season looks set to pass with little notice in the Norwegian media, but protests have been coming in from abroad and security police fear violent action from animal rights activists.
The international conservation organisation, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), has called on the Norwegian Government to call off the hunt.
It said in a statement: "The WWF appeals urgently to Norway to stop abusively profiting from loopholes of the International Whaling Commission and put an end to whale hunting.
"Norway has not stopped increasing the number of minkes it allocates to itself even although unsaleable stocks of blubber are piling up all over the country," the WWF said.
Our correspondent says the Norwegian Government forbids the export of whale meat and other whale products out of deference to a largely disapproving international public opinion, despite the high prices fetched by delicacies such as whale blubber on the Japanese market.
However the WWF's international conservation officer, Stuart Chapman, said this was the seventh consecutive year that Norway had set its own whaling quotas. These quotas have risen steadily since Norway resumed commercial whaling after the partial lifting of the moratorium.
Mr Chapman told BBC Radio: "It's high time that they abide by the wishes of the international community and stop these activities."
Norway's whaling season ends on 17 July.