Update: Mr. Kristjan Loftsson, the lone whaler, has run into trouble selling his whale meat. When six containers of whale meat representing between five and six fin whales were found on board a vessel in Rotterdam harbor, Avaaz mounted a email campaign that convinced port officials to announce no further whale meat would be allowed to pass through. Attention turned to the exporter Samskip, which promised not to handle any more whale meat bound for Japan. The meat was returned to Mr. Loftsson. Whaling activists were on hand to great the meat in Reykjavik with signs asking, "What is the point whaling?" US Person, along with your shareholders would also like to know, just what are you doing, Mr. Loftsson?
{19.06.13}After a two year hiatus, Iceland resumed commercial hunting of fin whales. The limit is set for 180 whales and the first whale was taken by the vessel Hvalur 8. Greenpeace undercover photos show a harpooned whale being butchered [right]. The meat will likely go to Japan. Fin whales are the Earth's second largest whale and is listed as threatened by the Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The International Fund for Animal Welfare condemned Iceland's only active whaler Kristjan Loftsson, for resuming commercial whaling; the organization called whaling a "dying industry" that should meet a faster death than that suffered by harpooned whales.
Iceland cancelled fin whale hunts in 2011 and 2012 partly due to lack of demand from Japan, then recovering from the megaquake and tsunami in March, 2011. As whale meat consumption by humans in Japan drops, some whale meat from Iceland has ended up in dog food products. A Japanese company, Michinoku Farm, stopped making an upscale whale jerky snack for dogs after a campaign against it by conservation groups. The company also makes dog food products from kangaroo and Mongolian horse. Whale meat products for pets are still available on the internet through Rakuten, Japan's largest on-line retailer. One whale advocate said it was "grotesque" that Iceland flouts two international conventions in order to feed endangered whale to pampered Japanese pets.