Whaling Conservationist Victory

Whaling Conservationist Victory



Aug. 2007  - Whale conservationists are 
declaring victory and celebrating the decision by the government of 
Iceland not to issue any more commercial whaling quotas until market 
demand for whale meat improves, especially in Japan. 
Icelandic Fisheries Minister Einar Guofinnsson told the Reuters news 
agency Friday that the government believes that there is no reason to 
allow more whaling after the current quota expires on August 31. 
"I will not issue a new quota until the market conditions for whale meat 
improve and permission to export whale products to Japan is secured," said 
Guofinnsson. "There is no reason to continue commercial whaling if there 
is no demand for the product." 
Icelandic whalers want to continue killing whales, saying they cannot 
build up the market if there is no product to sell. 
Last October Iceland announced a return to commercial whaling. Despite an 
international moratorium on commercial whaling that has been in place for 
over two decades, Iceland and issued a quota of 30 minke whales and nine 
fin whales, listed by the IUCN-World Conservation Union as an endangered 
species. 
Of that quota, Icelandic whalers have killed seven minke whales and seven 
fin whales but have not been able to market the meat for a number of 
reasons.

      Whale carcass is stripped of meat in Iceland. October 2006.  
But fears of high toxic levels in North Atlantic whale meat have made both 
Icelanders and Japanese consumers reluctant to buy it. 
"This is fantastic news for whales and for Iceland," said Robbie Marsland, 
director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare's UK office. 
"Whaling is cruel and unnecessary," he said, "and all of our studies have 
also shown there is little appetite for whale meat in Iceland or 
internationally." 
"We welcome the minister's comments and congratulate him for recognizing 
the lack of market and choosing not to press ahead with the pointless 
killing of more whales," Marsland said. "We hope that Iceland's successful 
whale watching industry will continue to grow without the country's image 
being further tarnished by whaling." 
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Founder Captain Paul Watson says his 20 
year long "aggressive" campaign against Icelandic whaling has turned 
public opinion against the twin ideas of whale hunting and eating whale 
meat, although he acknowledges the pressure from his organization is one 
factor among many. 
"Iceland has been deterred by condemnation from the International Whaling 
Commission for their illegal slaughter of whales. They have been deterred 
by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species which 
will not authorize the sale of Icelandic whale meat to Japan. And they 
have been deterred by international public criticism," Watson said Friday. 

"Much of that public awareness came about because of Sea Shepherd's 
Operation Ragnarok. The announcement in April that Sea Shepherd was 
sending its ship Farley Mowat to intervene against illegal Icelandic 
whaling generated a great deal of media attention towards the issue," he 
said. 
After an 11,500 mile voyage from Antarctica where it fought against 
Japanese whaling in January, the Sea Shepherd vessel Farley Mowat is now 
in Bermuda, and Watson says there is no reason to continue on to Iceland. 
But, he says, Sea Shepherd intends to keep the ship within range of 
Iceland if there is any attempt in 2008 to kill whales again. 
In November 1986, a Sea Shepherd crew sank half of Iceland's whaling fleet 
in Reykjavik harbor. No one was aboard when the ships were sunk. In 
January 1988, Watson flew to Iceland and demanded to be charged for the 
sinking. He says he wanted to stand trial "in response to Iceland's bogus 
charges of criminality." Iceland refused to lay charges. 
"Iceland knew that to put us on trial would in fact put the nation of 
Iceland on trial," said Watson. "By refusing to lay charges, Iceland 
acknowledged that Sea Shepherd's action was a justifiable policing 
action."

Greenpeace says that while Fisheries Minister Guofinnsson's statement is 
short of declaring an end to Icelandic whaling, it is unlikely that market 
conditions for whale meat will improve, and even more unlikely that Japan 
will purchase the meat. 
In addition to Iceland's self-authorized commercial whaling quota, since 
2003 Iceland has been conducting a separate "scientific" hunt for minke 
whales under a provision of the International Whaling Commission rules 
that allows for research whaling. 
This was intended to be a two year program to hunt 200 whales, begun in 
2003. Yet with only one more month of the 2007 whaling season left, the 
scientific hunt is still six whales short of that quota, despite four 
years of whaling, Greenpeace points out. Meat from this hunt is also 
piling up in storage lockers, unsold. 
There are alternatives to lethal research which makes killing whales for 
science unnecessary, Greenpeace says, calling for Iceland to announce an 
end to all whaling. 
Greenpeace is holding out an economic carrot to Iceland if the hunt is 
ended. "Sparing the six minkes remaining in the scientific quota could 
earn Icelandic tourism a bonus of $116.9 million from the 122,000 
Greenpeace supporters worldwide who have pledged to consider a visit to 
Iceland if whaling stops," the organization said Friday. "All the minister 
has to do is announce he's hanging up the harpoons." 

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