Editing Whaling (section)

==== Greenland ====
[[File:Whales Nordic.png|thumb|Whales caught per year]]

The Inuit mastered the art of whaling around the 11 century AD in the [[Bering Strait]]. The technique consisted of spearing a whale with a spear connected to an inflated seal bladder. The bladder would float and exhaust the whale when diving, and when it surfaced the Inuit hunters would spear it again, further exhausting the animal until they were able to kill it. [[Vikings in Greenland]] also ate whale meat, but archaeologists believe they never hunted them on the sea.<ref>[[Jared Diamond]]: [[Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed]], 2005</ref>

Greenlandic Inuit whalers catch around 175 large whales per year, mostly minke whales,<ref name="iwctotal">{{Cite web |url=https://iwc.int/total-catches |title=Total Catches |website=iwc.int |language=en |access-date=2018-03-23}}</ref> as well as 360 narwhals,<ref name="narwhals" /> 200 belugas,<ref name="Heide-Jorgensen">{{Cite web |last=Heide-Jorgensen |first=M.P. and E. Garde |date=2017-03-01 |title=Catch statistics for belugas in Greenland 1862 to 2016 |via=NAMMCO/JCNB Joint Working Group on narwhals and belugas, Copenhagen}}</ref><ref name="beluga">{{Cite journal |last1=Heide-Jørgensen |first1=M. P. |last2=Hansen |first2=R. G. |last3=Fossette |first3=S. |last4=Nielsen |first4=N. H. |last5=Borchers |first5=D. L. |last6=Stern |first6=H. |last7=Witting |first7=L. |date=2017-06-01 |title=Rebuilding beluga stocks in West Greenland (Supplement Table 1) |journal=Animal Conservation |language=en |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=282–293 |doi=10.1111/acv.12315 |issn=1469-1795|doi-access=free |hdl=10023/10882 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> 190 pilot whales and 2,300 porpoises.<ref name="statgl">{{Cite web |url=http://www.stat.gl/publ/en/SA/201007/tables/Catches.htm |title=Table 12, Catches |website=Statistics Greenland |access-date=2018-03-23}}</ref> The government of Greenland sets limits for narwhals and belugas. There are no limits on pilot whales and porpoises.<ref name="admin">{{Cite web |url=http://www.stat.gl/publ/en/SA/201007/content/Catching%20and%20Hunting.htm |title=Administration of Catching and Hunting |access-date=2018-03-23}}</ref>

The IWC treats the west and east coasts of Greenland as two separate population areas and sets separate quotas for each coast. The far more densely populated west coast accounts for over 90% of the catch. The average per year from 2012 to 2016 was around 150 minke and 17 fin whales and humpback whales taken from west coast waters and around 10 minke from east coast waters. In April 2009 Greenland landed its first bowhead whale in nearly 40 years. It landed three bowheads each year in 2009 and 2010, one each in 2011 and 2015.

In 2021 the [[Sermersooq]] municipal council banned whaling in [[Nuup Kangerlua]], one of the largest fjords in inhabited areas of Greenland. The council did not want hunting to kill the humpback whales seen by the local tourism industry. Before local humpback hunting resumed in 2010 there had been nine humpbacks in the fjord during summer. When hunting resumed some were killed and others left.<ref name="hakai-p">{{Cite news |last=Poulsen |first=Regin Winther  |date=2021-05-20 |title=Greenland Votes to Move Whaling Away from Tourists' Eyes |language=en |work=Hakai Magazine |url=https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/greenland-votes-to-move-whaling-away-from-tourists-eyes/ |access-date=2021-05-27}}</ref><ref name="high">{{Cite news |date=2021-03-03 |title=Decision on Potential Humpback Whale Hunting Moratorium for Nuuk Fjord Today |work=High North News |url=https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/decision-potential-humpback-whale-hunting-moratorium-nuuk-fjord-today |access-date=2021-05-27}}</ref> Sermersooq has not banned whaling elsewhere in the municipality, which is the world's largest municipality, at 200,000 square miles on both coasts. {{citation needed|date=December 2024}}