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Back in October I posted a story about Iceland resuming whaling on the Hummingbird website.
I'm going to post it again here, because Jamie at Hippoworld has sent me a follow-up article that makes so angry I want to spit blood...
First the original article:
 Hearty congratulations to the brave, bright whalers of the tiny wildlife-haven of Iceland for sticking two fingers up to the whining greenies, the IWC, the treaties they've signed, and the international conservation community and voting to resume the old hunting 'tradition' of firing explosive harpoons from huge ships into the flanks of those scourges of the seas, those parasites of the oceans, those pointless, dumb, stupid animals who haven't a brain to rub between them...the Atlantic's fin whales, some of the world's most intelligent and scarce mammals (unlike Icelandic whalers, unfortunately).
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"Reports suggest that Iceland are to resume commercial whaling, despite
the international ban. They are to target nine fin whales, listed as an
endangered species, and 30 minke whales each year.
Iceland currently kills whales for what it claims are scientific
purposes, exploiting a loophole in the International Whaling
Commission’s founding treaty which allows whaling for research. Iceland
now plans to end its so-called scientific hunt in 2007 and begin hunting
whales commercially.
WDCS’s Mark Simmonds said “ Whilst this development is not unexpected
following Iceland's ongoing 'scientific whaling' and its rejoining of
the International Whaling Commission with an objection to the moratorium
on commercial whaling. However, it flies in the face of international
opinion and is a step in the wrong direction for the conservation and
welfare of whales. It is sad news that fin whales in the North Atlantic
will once again be the focus of a commercial hunt."
Iceland left the IWC in 1992 in protest at the ban on commercial whaling
and only rejoined in 2002 with a reservation against the ban. Iceland
threatened to resume commercial whaling under its reservation in 2006,
however it has hidden behind the guise of science until now. In 2003,
Iceland killed 36 whales, 25 in 2004 and 39 in 2005.
Norway has also continued to kill minke whales in the North Atlantic,
this time through a legal ‘Objection’ lodged against the ban, and Japan
continues to kill whales for ‘scientific purposes’.
Evidence suggests that the market for whale meat and blubber is failing
in all three countries. In Norway, this year’s whaling season had to be
suspended, as the meat could not be sold, plus thousands of tonnes of
blubber have accumulated in warehouses, been burned or dumped at sea
since international trade in whale products was banned by CITES (the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora).
Source: WDCS/ BBC/ Reuters"
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Asta Einarsdottir, a lawyer for Iceland’s Ministry of Fisheries, was also quoted as saying that the resumption of whaling “is part of our main principle of sustainable use of all living marine resources”.
Strangely all this comes at at time when Einar Steinthorsson, director of the Hvalsodin Whale Watching Center, says that an estimated 90,000 visitors had joined tours to see whales in 2006. He also mentioned the surprising fact - given that whales are just large, dense fish as whalers would have us believe - that Minke Whales had become less inclined to swim close to tourism boats since scientific whaling resumed in 2003.
Speaking on television, Iceland's Finance Minister Arni Mathiesen said that whaling is "part of what Iceland is all about" and also mentioned that 60% of Iceland's export revenues came from the fishing industry. Interestingly, tourism makes up roughly another 4% of Iceland's gross national product and is the second-largest source of foreign revenue earnings behind fishing. In the last decade, tourism in Iceland grew at an average annual rate of 9% - so just how would they react if we STOPPED buying their fish and STOPPED visiting their country?
So far, so bad - but next comes the unsurprising news from Greenpeace on 23 January 2007 that, as most experts predicted, no-one wanted the meat from this hellish slaughter - and it's now being left to ROT in a dump:
- Iceland leaves slaughtered whales to rot
Iceland slaughters 7 endangered fin whales, leaves half to rot
January 23, 2007
Greenpeace has uncovered more than 170 tons of rotting whale meat in an
Icelandic dump site, just months after Iceland reopened commercial
whaling and killed seven endangered fin whales. Another 200 tons of
whale meat still remains in cold storage, unsold in the marketplace, and
awaiting testing for chemical contamination.
“Iceland claims their commercial whaling is sustainable – but how can
they justify it when they are hunting endangered species, without
domestic demand, and an over-supply of whale products in Japan?” said
Greenpeace Nordic Oceans campaigner, Frode Pleym. “Both Iceland and
Japan continue to whale in the face of domestic and international
opposition, even though there is no scientific, economic or
environmental justification for it,” added Pleym.
Even as these shocking discoveries have been revealed, the Japanese
whaling fleet is hunting 935 minke whales and 10 more endangered fin
whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary near Antarctica. In Japan
too, stockpiles of up to 5,000 tons from previous hunts sit in cold
storage, unsold.
“It is no surprise that there are massive stockpiles of whale meat, when
a recent survey shows that 95 percent of Japanese people never or have
rarely eaten whale meat. It is time for all governments to make a
commitment to the whales and not an outdated, unwanted and pointless
industry,” said Greenpeace Japan's campaign director, Junichi Sato.
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I tell you now, if the Icelandic Tourist Board offered me a free birding holiday and 5-star luxury accomodation - and Iceland has some great birds somehow surviving amongst its shotgun-toting 'hunters' (to quote from the The Icelandic Hunting Club website: "Seabird (puffin and guillemot) hunting is a very popular sport in Iceland... Hunting from boat, 100 birds per day per hunter is common. Iceland is the only country in the world where you can hunt puffins. No limit" - I'd chuck it back in their face so bloody fast it would hurt...
Oh, so THAT'S where all the Puffins have gone...
(Photo © of the morons from the The Icelandic Hunting Club.)
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Technorati tag - whaling
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