Would you try whale in Norway?

When I was a journalist, I reported on a community effort that saved a Minke whale stranded in West Auckland, New Zealand. We are about as anti-whaling as we are pro-rugby

One of the amazing things about travel is that it challenges perspectives. Often at home we are shrouded by our country’s culture, traditions and values and it can be hard to think outside the square and see beyond that. Travelling exposes us to different ideas and viewpoints, it often broadens our horizons and challenges our values, making us think about things on a deeper level.

In Norway, whaling is a thing, and to a New Zealander, that is shocking. How can such an advanced country that gets things so right in so many ways still kill such an awe inspiring creature? The sale of the meat is easy to come by with Norwegian restaurants selling it as well as fish markets. Our friends in Norway asked us if we would like to try it.

Norway - so beautiful and gained a number one spot in the World Happiness Report due to the quality of life.

For our friends, it’s like eating any other game animal. They are killed humanely. It is also only the Minke whale that can be hunted which have a large population, so they argue that it is sustainable. We also discovered that many Norwegians (Europeans in general for that matter) tend to be very loyal to their traditions and whaling goes back to viking times.

For environmental reasons, I have cut down how much meat I eat. I call myself a flexitarian which means that I am a vegetarian most of the time but I am not going to punish myself or feel guilty about the times that I slip-up or when somebody has cooked a meal which contains meat, I will eat it.

My gut reaction to trying whale was ‘no’, but why? Why would I be happy to try reindeer or moose or other traditional Norwegian dishes but not whale? Why am I happy to eat meat on occasion, even though I love animals and think its production is unsustainable, but not whale? Pigs are one of the most intelligent animals on the planet yet most of the world is happy to eat them - but not whale.

The fish market in the beautiful city of Bergen is legendary but you will find whale at every stall.

I guess the simple answer is that it’s not my culture - it would be un-New Zealand of me to eat it, and I would feel sick and extremely guilty. We don’t eat horse, we don’t eat dog or cat and we certainly don’t eat whale. To get the most out of a travelling experience, I would normally advise going all in and trying to integrate into a culture as much as possible, leaving your own baggage behind, and embracing the environment you are in. But it is an ethical and moral dilemma when cultures clash.  

Being in Europe, which is so seeped in tradition, I have often thought that the lack of that in New Zealand is to our advantage - we don’t have so many rules as they do over here which means that we can experiment more and come up with innovative products and solutions. But it seems we do have some traditions, and being anti-whaling is one of them, and a value that I wasn't prepared to bend.