Iceland whaling go-ahead 'likely'

[Guest guest]

Iceland whaling go-ahead 'likely'

By Richard Black

Environment correspondent, BBC News website

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7294564.stm

 

Iceland is likely to approve the commercial hunting of whales for this summer,

the BBC has learned.

 

Its whaling industry is asking for a quota of about 100 minke whales and a

number

of fin whales too.

 

A government official confirmed it is " likely " that quotas will be issued

soon, with the season starting in May.

 

Iceland resumed commercial whaling in 2006, but said last year that quotas

would

only be issued if there was a demand for the meat.

 

This was interpreted in some quarters as spelling an end to the Icelandic

hunt;

but the minke whaling industry says it has sold all the meat from the last two

years'

catch, which shows there is an appetite for whale products.

 

" We're hoping for a quota for minke - we've been talking about taking

100 whales, " the head of Iceland's minke whaling association, Gunnar Bergmann

Jonsson, told BBC News.

 

" We caught 45 last summer, and we've sold it all. The minister says he's

basing his decision on whether there's a market, so we hope he would give us

a quota. "

Sustainable question

 

Stefan Asmundsson, a senior official in Iceland's fisheries ministry and its

commissioner to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), confirmed that the

hunt

was likely to go ahead.

 

" We are not expecting any big quotas, but we are likely to see in the

relatively

near future some quotas for minke whales.

 

" The most important factor is to ensure the quotas are within sustainable

limits. "

The IWC estimates there are about 175,000 minke whales in the North Atlantic,

and

Icelandic scientists say a quota of 100 easily fits within the definition of

" sustainable " .

 

In 2006, Iceland also issued a quota for fin whales, a species currently

categorised

as Endangered.

 

The fin whaling company, Hvalur hf, is hoping that it will receive a quota

again,

perhaps as large as 150 whales.

 

" There are 25,000 fin whales in the area where we hunt, " said the owner

of Hvalur, Kristjan Loftsson.

 

" If a farmer had 25,000 cattle in his field, I don't think he would agree

to a zero take. If this (150 whales) is not sustainable, I don't know what is. "

 

Mr Asmundsson did not rule out issuing a fin quota, although 150 appears

unlikely.

There is a very small domestic market for fin meat, and most of the 2006 catch

is

still in cold storage.

 

Hvalur is hoping eventually to set up an export trade to Japan.

 

'Useless, futile'

 

Environmental groups greeted the news with dismay.

 

" It's meaningless, it's useless, it's futile, it's against

the spirit of the whaling regime that Iceland says it wants internationally, "

said Arni Finnsson of the Iceland Nature Conservation Association (Inca).

 

" There is little domestic market, the export route to Japan is closed; is

Iceland

just trying to make a point? "

 

His feelings were echoed by Robbie Marsland, head of the UK office of the

International

Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).

 

" We feel this would be an extremely damaging step for Iceland's international

reputation, for its tourism and its wider economy, " he said.

 

Mr Marsland was speaking from Iceland where Ifaw is holding a conference on

whale-watching,

which it argues is an ethically and economically superior way of using

cetaceans.

 

Internationally, an Icelandic decision to continue its commercial hunt would

offer

renewed support for Japan's position, which maintains that whales can and should

be regarded like any other living marine resource, and harvested sustainably.

 

Fisheries minister Einar Gudfinnsson is likely to make the final announcement

within a month.

________

 

You can send your opinion on this subject to:

 

Mr. Vilhjalmur Egilsson, Permanent Secretary

The Ministry of Fisheries

Skulagata 4

150 Reykjavík

Iceland

 

 

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure

that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain