Iceland defies world ban with return to whaling

Iceland has decided to resume commercial whaling, in defiance of the 20-year-old international whaling moratorium. The country joins Norway in openly hunting the great whales for profit.

In recent years it has been killing a small number of animals annually but saying it was hunting them for "scientific" reasons, as does Japan.

Iceland's current permits include 200 minke whales from 2003-07, of which 161 have been caught, leaving 39 for 2007. It will now allow whalers to harpoon a commercial quota of 30 minke whales and nine fin whales in the year to the end of August 2007.

The huge fin whale, second in size only to the blue whale, the world's largest animal, dropped in numbers catastrophically during the 20th century because of hunting. It is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

But the Icelanders took a robust view of their decision yesterday.

"The Icelandic economy is overwhelmingly dependent on the utilisation of living marine resources in the ocean around the country," the Icelandic Fisheries Ministry said in a statement.

"We are ready to start hunts immediately," said Kristjan Loftsson, head of the Icelandic whaling company that received the hunt permit.

The pro-whaling countries argue that stocks have recovered since the International Whaling Commission imposed the moratorium on hunts in 1986.

Iceland contends there are about 70,000 minke whales and 25,800 fin whales in the central North Atlantic region.

However, environmentalists are strongly opposed to the move.

"We strongly urge Iceland to abandon its plans to resume commercial whaling. It's cruel, there's no money in whaling, hardly anyone in Iceland eats whale meat and now they want to expand their whaling to include an endangered species - it's crazy," said Robbie Marsland, UK director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

He went on: "Iceland has been struggling to sell whale meat obtained since 2003 through its so-called scientific whaling programme. As well as no scientific findings of value being released from this, Iceland has tried and failed to find markets for its whale meat.

"Recent polling by Gallup in Iceland revealed that only 1.1 per cent of Icelanders eat whale meat once a week or more, while 82.4 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds never eat whale meat ... IFAW urges Iceland to protect its booming whale watching industry, which attracts thousands of tourists to Iceland every year.

"Tourism groups and whale watching organisations in Iceland have voiced their concerns over the effects of scientific whaling on their economy. To pursue commercial whaling, and to add endangered fin whales to the list, will risk serious damage to Iceland's tourism industry, as well as its international reputation."

Greenpeace made the same point last night.

"Iceland has no market for whale meat, but they do have a huge and far more valuable market for whale watching," said campaigner Sarah Duthie.

Greenpeace has collected 87,000 signatures from foreigners who say they might visit the country if Reykjavik abandoned whale hunts.

While Norway and Japan have taken whales since 1986, the Norwegians commercially and the Japanese under the guise of science, the Icelanders have had an on-off relationship with hunting.

The Norwegians allowed a quota of 1,052 minke whales in 2006, while Japan caught 850 minke whales and 10 fin whales in Antarctic waters last season.

- INDEPENDENT