Star Trek

The humpback whales were released in the Pacific ocean near San Francisco but the whalers attacking them weren't speaking English. It sounded like they were speaking Norwegian which doesn't make any sense. Were they Russians?

They were not released anywhere near San Francisco. The dialogue between Kirk and Dr. Taylorearlier in the film indicates that the whales were flown in a special 747 to Alaska and released. Thats why the Bounty took so long getting there. 

Okay, you're correct, they were released near Alaska. That still doesn't answer who were the whalers?

There were no details given in the film as to the origin of the whaling ship or her crew. If we have a liguistics expert here on the board, they might be able to tell you what language was being spoken in the film, and that could help answer your question. I've tried looking it up, and was not very successful...

I assumed they were Norwegian or otherwise Scandinavian.  There are plenty of Scandinavian fishing boats active in that area. They have a traditional whaling society.

According to Memory Alpha, the whalers spoke Finnish.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Finnish_language

Finnish, wow, that makes even less sense. Finland and Alaska are on opposite sides of the world. Oh well, so is the life of a Trekkie.

Since the days of wooden ships with sails and rigging, whalers have traversed the globe in search of their prey. Certainly those whalers could have been from anywhere.

Personally, as they were in the waters of the Berring Sea, I think we are intended to assume they are Russian.

Perhaps they used Arctic shipping lanes to get there.  That would be the (relatively) short way to get there.

Maybe they were Russians that spoke Finnish. It could happen!

It's Kvennish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kven_language