ABSTRACT
Norway Resumed Commercial Catches of minke whales in June 1993, in spite of angry protests and threats of boycott from environmental and animal welfare/rights groups as well as from politicians and governments. In this short paper I will ask why whales and whaling receive this attention, by analysing, first, how whales have been turned into a totem for many people in the western world, and, second, why some governments have found anti-whaling campaigns good issues to support. I will undoubtedly provoke some ‘whale-lovers’, but time is overdue to take a critical approach to the environmentalist movement. It will be argued that anti-whaling campaigns do more harm than good to the environment.
