Iceland To Skip Whale Hunting For The Second Year In A Row, Here's Why
Icelands largest whaling companies have decided to shut shop amid the coronavirus lockdown and the move is to spare the lives of close to a 100 mammals. IP-Utgerd which specializes in hunting minke whales told AFP it was no longer financially viable to hunt for whales in Icelandic waters. Hvalur which hunts fin whales the biggest species after the blue whale said it was cancelling the season due to export woes.
Iceland¡¯s largest whaling companies have decided to shut shop amid the coronavirus lockdown and the move is to spare the lives of close to a 100 mammals.
According to an AFP report, Icelandic whaling is limited to the summer months, this means no whales will be hunted off the subarctic coasts of Iceland, for the second year in a row.
Reuters
IP-Utgerd, which specializes in hunting minke whales, told AFP it was no longer financially viable to hunt for whales in Icelandic waters.
While the news is welcomed by many conservationists and activists, many are aware that main reason is dwindling finances amid the lockdown and not ethics.
Reuters
"I'm never going to hunt whales again, I'm stopping for good," managing director Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson said.
The hunt had become too expensive after a no-fishing coastal zone was extended, requiring whalers to go even further offshore, he said.
Meanwhile, Hvalur, which hunts fin whales, the biggest species after the blue whale, said it was cancelling the season due to export woes and, to a lesser degree, restrictions linked to the new coronavirus.
Reuters
Hvalur is postponing its hunts for the second year running because of the lack of demand for whale meat from Japan ¨C its main buyer ¨C as the country has started doing its own whaling.
Icelandic whale meat processing plants would have trouble carrying out their tasks due to social distancing restrictions implemented by authorities to combat the spread of the the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2018, the last year Iceland's whalers went out, a total of 146 fin whales and six minke whales were harpooned.
Iceland resumed commercial whaling in 2003 despite the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) 1986 moratorium, which it had opposed. Many countries stopped whaling after the IWC¡¯s ban, but Iceland resumed its commercial whaling activities in 2003. The WWF reported that more than 31,000 whales have been killed by countries that continued whaling since the ban.
All Inputs AFP