Norway said today it was poised to resume contested exports of products from slaughtered whales after taking "a big step forward" in setting up a genetic data base designed to prevent poaching.
"We have just received results of genetic analyses that we carried out to verify our controls," said Ms Kirsti Henriksen, a senior official at Norway's fisheries ministry.
"They are very, very encouraging. The only thing left now is the physical set-up of the genetic data base itself, and that will only take a matter of weeks," Ms Henriksen said.
The data base was designed to keep tabs on whales that can legally be hunted and prevent illegal whaling by "tracking" them through computerised records of their DNA.
Creation of the system was one of the conditions Norway spelled out when it announced in January that it planned to renew whale exports despite an international moratorium on whale hunting which Oslo never ratified.
Ms Henriksen said the genetic tests carried out so far for the system gave it a margin of error of less than one percent. "It's a big step forward," she said.
Japan is the main consumer of whale by-products that include blubber, meat and whale skin and Norway's announcement that it planned to resume whale exports provoked an uproar from animal rights organisations around the world.
The decision however was popular with Norwegian fishermen anxious to sell off large stocks of blubber, considered a delicacy in Japan.
Norway already caused outrage with animal rights activists when it resumed whale hunting for purely domestic purposes in 1993.
Oslo has authorised the capture of up to 549 mink whales for this year.
AFP