Like a couple of hundred other Norwegian fishermen, they make a living combining fishing and minke whaling. And for the way they make their living, they have been declared Environmental Enemy Number 1.
Among those who have declared war on the Bendiksens are organisations like the California-based Sea Shepherd. On Boxing Day 1992, members of Sea Shepherd attempted to sink the fishing and whaling vessel "Nybrænna" in the harbour of a neighbouring island. Greenpeace, meanwhile, have announced that they will "hit where it hurts the most" - the national economy. They hope to turn Norwegians against their own people by persuading chain stores and imports aborad to boycott Norwegian goods, and by pressuring the US government into imposing trade sanctions.
So far, few importers have responded to the call, but key politicians in the US and the UK are proving less principled.
"Either you stop killing, or we stop buying", said Gerry Studds, chairman of the US Congress Merchant and Marine Fisheries Committee, in a press release in July 1993. In October 1993, Bill Clinton notified Congress that he had asked for a list of potential trade sanctions to be drawn up.
British Prime Minister Mr. John Major claims that Norwegian minke whaling is incompatible with Norwegian membership of the European Union.
Hitherto, the US has only subjected countries like Serbia, Iraq and South Africa to measures as drastic as they are now threatening Norway with. And never before has anyone implied a country might be excluded from the company of the European Union on the grounds of environmental or animal welfare issues.
These reactions are a result of the Norwegian authorities' decision to resume the minke whale harvest in the summer of 1993, following its suspension in 1987. The quota was set at 296 minkes, 160 to be taken in the traditional harvest, and 136 for scientific purposes.
The experts agree that this harvest does not constitute any threat to the North - East Atlantic stock of minke whales, which, according to the 1989 count, numbers about 87,000. (For latest update on estimate -click here)
"In all reasonableness we would have to say that a commercial catch could be taken without endangering these stocks," said the secretary of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), Dr. Ray Gambell to the Times of London on May 14, 1993. He was referring to the stocks in the North Atlantic and the Southern Hemisphere, where minke whales number about 760,000.
The US authorities, too, have openly acknowledged (in May 1993 note to Iceland and Norway) that these minke whale stocks are capable of being harvested on a sustainable basis.
"I don't think people know that much about it. They think we're out to catch the last remaining whale. Only a few people know what minke whaling is all about., but there are plenty of those with strong opinions about it. Whoever they are , it's their duty to find out what it's all about," says Bjørn Hugo Bendiksen.
WHO AND WHERE
Reine in Lofoten is typical of many of the tiny coastal communities in Norway. It is a
safe, open community where crime is almost unknown and doors are normally left
unlocked. Families stick together down through the generations. The 400 inhabitants have
everything they need for their every day lives: A bank, a shop, a church, a petrol station, a
post office, a school, a kindergarten and a pub that's open every day during the tourist
season, but only one day a week during the winter. Buying furniture, clothes or CD's
involves an hour's drive along narrow roads to the nearest town. Buying wines and spirits
involves a further hour's drive to the nearest State Wine Monopoly in Svolvær.
Today there are no cattle or pigs in Reine, only six or seven sheep and 20 free range white hens. Only a couple of decades ago nearly every family had a cow and a couple of sheep for self - sufficiency purposes. The fodder was brought down from the steep, grassy mountainsides.
It is the life in the ocean that has provided the foundation for settlement up here. Bjørn Hugo Bendiksen was born and raised in Reine and has worked at sea since he was 16 years old. It is difficult for young people to find work in the village, so about half the people of his age have moved away. The population has declined steadily over the past 30 years.
"It was an easy choice for me to make," says Bjørn Hugo, even though he could have taken almost any education of his choice. "Fishing and hunting is hard work, but it provides you with a meaningful and exciting life where no one day is like the next. It all depends on how good you are and how willing you are to make a go of it," he says.