HolyCoast: Whale Watchers Get More Than They Bargained For
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Saturday, July 08, 2006

Whale Watchers Get More Than They Bargained For

When you pay for a whale watching trip, you don't expect to see whalers in action:

Eager Norwegian whalers didn't do much to boost the image of their country's tourism industry this week, when they gunned down a whale before the eyes of tourists out on a whale-watching expedition.

A boatload of tourists wasn't prepared to see a sight like this, while coming back from a whale-watching expedition off northern Norway.

Norway's whaling industry has sparked international protest over the years. This week, the protests came from the whalers' own hunting grounds.

Around 80 tourists had paid to go out on a whale-watching boat from Andenes, in northern Norway. Called "whale safaris" locally, the whale-watching has become an increasingly popular tourist attraction in recent years.

While the tourists were admiring one of the great mammals of the sea, however, a Norwegian whaling boat approached and shot the whale in front of their eyes.

Leontien Dieleman from the Netherlands was among those who was shocked by the slaughter they suddenly and unexpectedly witnessed.

"This really wasn't what we came to see," Dieleman told local newspaper Andøyposten.


Did the advertising say they were going to watch live whales?

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