DCML digest, Vol 1 #27 - 14 msgs

["Jørgen Andreas Bangor"]

Very non-Disney matter below.


Kriton,

| Forgive an ignorant greek for asking: a greek pirate fleet? The only
| greek pirates of which I am aware were active in the Aegean sea at the
| time of the turkish occupation.

They were of a quite different kind than the ones in the Aegean sea, 
but they were still called pirates. 

In the late fifties, when the traditional whale catching nations started 
to get problems in the Antarctic because of lack of whales, a lot of rules 
were introduced, including maximum catch quotas and measures for how 
small/young the whales could be. There were also declared times for where
an when whales of different kinds could be taken. 
The rules started with the foundation of IWC many years earlier, but it
wasn't until it really showed up that it was needed, that real regulations
were started. NOTE: At this time the IWC really was an organization
supposed to regulate whale catching so that all whale populations would
remain sustainable, and not a tool for Greenpeace.

The maximum of whales that should be taken were calculated from countings
and number of taken whales the last season. Then it was divided into
quotas which was shared between the expeditions that had been catching
for the last years. An expedition consisted of a floating factory or a
land based whaling station, and its fleet of catcher ships.

The quotas were given to Norwegian, British, Russian, Japanese and Dutch
expeditions. It might have worked if everyone followed the rules, but in
the end it didn't. The Dutch withdrew from IWC because they meant there
were enough whales for unlimited catching. Then the Norwegians withdrew
in protest that the organization didn't work. The Russians always reported
their catches as much bigger than they were, so that their quotas would 
be bigger next year. The Brits and the Japanese followed the rules, but
the Japanese were the only ones who were effective enough to make a good
economical result of it.

On top of this, Aristotle Onassis equipped a whaling fleet, registered it
in Panama, and broke every rule he could. His fleet simply emptied big
areas for whale - any kinds - by catching everything no matter how old
they were. His fleet were also working all the time, including times when
catching was not supposed to be done.

This is not to excuse the other nations, though. When every regulation
broke down, the philosophy for the British and Norwegian fleets - the
latter was by far the biggest of them all - was to catch about everything
until there weren't enough left to make it economically profitable, and
then invest the profit in other business.

Now, sorry for the long non-Disney text, but I felt I had to explain
that.



   Jørgen