Iceland to keep hunting up to 2,130 whales over 5 years

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Egill Bjarnason, Associated Press Updated 12:33 pm CST, Saturday, February 23, 2019

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Iceland's whaling industry will be allowed to keep hunting whales for at least another five years, killing up to 2,130 baleen whales under a new quota issued by the government.

The five-year whaling policy was up for renewal when Fisheries Minister Kristjan Juliusson announced this week an annual quota of 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales for the next five years

While many Icelanders support whale hunting, a growing number of businessmen and politicians are against it due to the North Atlantic island nation's dependence on tourism.

Whaling, they say, is bad for business and poses a threat to the country's reputation and the expanding international tourism that has become a mainstay of Iceland's national economy.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Iceland-to-keep-hunting-up-to-2-130-whales-over-5-13639321.php

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Iceland plans to slaughter over 2,000 whales in the next 5 years
By Jenny Awford, The Sun February 22, 2019 | 2:55pm | Updated

Iceland is planning to slaughter more than 2,000 whales within the next five years in a move that has sparked fury.

Despite a declining global market for whale meat and public outrage over hunts, the government has decided to remain in defiance of the international ban on whaling.

Iceland’s Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Kristjan Thor Juliusson said whalers would be allowed to harpoon 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales every year until 2023.

. . .

Every summer, thousands of pilot and beaked whales are massacred in bays across the nearby Danish-owned Faroe Islands.

More:
https://nypost.com/2019/02/22/iceland-plans-to-slaughter-over-2000-whales-in-the-next-5-years/

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Campaigners accuse Iceland of slaughtering endangered blue whale
By Alice Tidey • last updated: 13/07/2018

Whalers in Iceland have been accused of hunting and slaughtering an endangered blue whale.

Campaigners from the marine conservation charity Sea Shepherd have released pictures which they say show Iceland’s only whaling company, Hvalur hf, butchering the sea creature.

The blue whale, the largest animal on earth, has been considered endangered since 1986. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the total population of the marine mammal has decreased by between 70% to 90% over the past three generations due to commercial whaling.

Kristjan Loftsson, owner of Hvalur hf, denies that the animal the company slaughtered is a blue whale, arguing instead that it is a hybrid between a fin — also an endangered species — and a blue whale.

More:
https://www.euronews.com/2018/07/13/campaigners-accuse-iceland-of-slaughtering-endangered-blue-whale

[Bayard]

1. For once,

I agree with businessmen and politicians. I read recently that younger Japanese people don't want it. So what's the point of the Japanese taken a large amount of whales every year for "research".

How many other products still require whale meat?

[rwsanders]

4. None

From what I have read it is largely going into school lunches and pet food in Japan.
But the market in Japan is what the other "whaling" countries are hoping to tap into. According to the book "Eye of the Whale" by Dick Russell, selling whale meat to Japan was the primary motivation behind the push by the Makah tribe to return to whaling. They had not had a "traditional" whale hunt there in over 70 years. From what I understand, that is the same motivation behind the push in Iceland and Norway.
Now traditional whale hunts, while I wish they would go away, and I strongly feel that they should be required to remain traditional i.e. no outboard motors, no harpoon guns, the whale meat does provide a source of vitamin C that would otherwise be missing from the diet. But if the economy there becomes based on something other than a subsistence lifestyle, like an oil based economy, etc. and the population is going to be growing, that could be a problem.

[rwsanders]

2. Iceland airways is flying into KCMO airport.

I wonder how much it would cost to rent a billboard in the airport saying something about this.
Of course in our land of "free speech" it would probably take going to the Supreme Court to get the airport to put one in place.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Would never have expected to hear this! It seems a little out of their way....

Maybe it's a stop en route to Japan?

It would be an excellent idea to let Iceland know with protest signs that people in the middle of the country don't support greedy, barbaric actions, either.

Thanks for the information.

[rwsanders]

5. Maybe we should find a few like minded folks and chip in for a display.

Some of them can be done for less than $1000.
I think the idea for them is to be a new hub into Europe.
http://www.theairport.org/kansascity-mci-airport-advertising.html

[sinkingfeeling]

6. I have scratched Iceland off my bucket list due to this. I was looking

at a trip with g Adventures (with National Geographic) that is luring tourist with whale watching!

[IronLionZion]

7. Tourists also go there for whale watching

I went to Iceland and only saw whale on the menu once. I never saw puffins on the menu either, but supposedly that's a dish some folks eat. Icelanders also eat greenland shark, which are not endangered but are still threatened since they live a very long time in deep cold water.

I'm sure Iceland's whaling industry is on it's way out from reduced demand. They export most of the meat to Japan.

[Coventina]

8. Podunk country with less than 1 million people.

Want to hunt one of the world's most endangered and majestic animals?

Fuck those motherfuckers.

eta: no number of population would make it OK, it just pisses me off that what is the size of medium city in the US can decide something with such global ramifications.

[dhill926]

9. Fuck those motherfuckers indeed...

[Baclava]

10. Japan, Norway, Iceland

Despite the 1986 IWC ban on commercial whaling, some countries refuse to end their whaling operations.

Japan

Almost immediately after the 1986 whaling ban came into effect, Japan launched its scientific whaling programme, widely recognised as a cover for its ongoing commercial whaling operation.

Meat from these whales — supposedly killed for science — is then sold in food markets or given away free or at low costs to schools and hospitals in marketing drives to encourage the consumption of whale meat .

The Japanese whaling fleet departs twice a year. In the North Pacific, Japanese whalers can kill up to 200 minke whales, 50 Bryde's, 100 sei whales and 10 sperm whales under the guise of scientific research. Vessels had been killing up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales each year in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary before the International Court of Justice ruled that this was illegal.

Norway

Norway sets its own quota for the number of whales its whalers are permitted to kill for commercial reasons. This number has gone up and up, from being allowed to kill 671 minke whales in 2002 to more than 1,000 today. However, in recent years, less than half of this self-allocated catch limit has been taken.

Norway is now hunting a higher proportion of breeding females which could put the long-term survival of minke whales in the North Atlantic in severe danger.

Iceland

Like Japan, Iceland initially conducted a 'scientific' whaling programme. Then, in 1992, it withdrew from the IWC. When Iceland re-joined in 2004, it included a clause in its re-entry that spoke out in objection to the whaling moratorium.

In 2006, Iceland resumed commercial whaling, targeting minke and fin whales. In 2010 alone, Icelandic whalers killed 148 endangered fin whales and 60 minke whales.

https://www.ifaw.org/united-states/our-work/whales/which-countries-are-still-whaling