“I’m really opposed to commercial whaling seeing whales close is so exciting. Watch: glimpses of a Soviet Ghost Town on an Arctic Norwegian Isle. “Today there were more (whale) jumps than usual it was fantastic,” said Kiyoko Ogi, a 47-year-old Tokyo bus driver who’s been whale-watching in Rausu three times. Watch: glimpses of a Soviet Ghost Town on an Arctic Norwegian Isle. Hasegawa’s customers came from all over Japan and several foreign countries. On a recent weekday, customers packed the parking lot at a wharf lined with squid-fishing boats, waiting to board Hasegawa’s boat and those of three other companies. Though the first few years were a struggle, he is now happy with his choice as Rausu’s reputation grows globally. Photo report Pyramiden, a Soviet ghost town in Arctic Norway Thomas Nilsen, The Independent Barents Observer Posted: Monday, Octoat 06:00 Last Updated: Tuesday, Ap. Hasegawa, a fourth-generation fisherman, began his tour boat business in 2006. The population has dropped by several hundred annually, slipping below 5,000 this year. ![]() Though fishing was long Rausu’s economic backbone, the industry has taken a hit from declining fish stocks, which locals blame on Russian trawlers and falling prices. On the remote archipelago of Svalbard, a decaying settlement offers visitors an intimate look at the not-so-distant past. Summer often brings thick fog, while winter storms can leave waist-high drifts. Glimpses of a Soviet Ghost Town on an Arctic Norwegian Isle. Consumption was widespread after World War Two, when an impoverished Japan needed cheap protein, but fell off after the early 1960s as other meat grew cheaper.įoxes run through the streets of the city’s downtown, which clings to a narrow strip of land below mountains and faces the Nemuro Strait. “They’ll be whaling for a week here, we may have more.”Įverybody acknowledges that rebuilding demand could be tough after decades of whale being a pricey, hard-to-find food. “We endured for 31 years, but now it’s all worth it,” he said in Kushiro on Monday night after the first minkes were brought in to be butchered. Whaling advocates, such as Yoshifumi Kai, head of the Japan Small-type Whaling Association, celebrated the hunt. Yet Japan, under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - himself from a whaling district - left the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and returned to commercial whaling on July 1. Barely 300 people are directly involved with whaling around Japan, and though the government maintains whale meat is an important part of food culture, the amount consumed annually has fallen to only 0.1 percent of total meat consumption.
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