This article deals with the history of whaling in Norway, and provides an overview of the current situation of coastal minke whaling in the northern part of Norway and the commodity chain of minke whale meat in Norway. The first section briefly illustrates the history of whaling in Norway: how Norway developed the modern method in the mid-19th century, and how Norway developed pelagic whaling in the Antarctic Ocean in the early 20th century. While modern whaling had its roots in seal hunting for its fur and blubber, pelagic whaling in the Southern Ocean was exclusively for the oil. Aside from the pelagic whaling for oil, Norway has practiced small scale coastal whaling for meat since the late 1920s. When IWC decided to put the Moratorium in place in 1982, Norway objected to this decision, which allowed Norway to continue its commercial whaling. Using various secondary statistical data, I explore the current situation of minke whaling in Norway, that started in 1993 when Norway resumed commercial whaling after the voluntary moratorium set in 1988. Based on data gathered from my fieldwork, a case study of one whale meat processing company, operating in Lofoten Islands, Norland county, is also discussed. The characteristics of coastal whaling in Norway can be summarized as: 1) domestic demands for minke whale meat is about 600 tons, 2) whale meat processing industry heavily depends on seasonal migrant workers from eastern Europe, 3) supply of whale meat has been decreasing since 2015, 4) this is probably due to low price of whale meat, and 5) major processors target Japanese sashimi market for their products, which may cause structural changes in minke whaling in Norway in the future.
