Iceland Suspends Whaling

Iceland, one of the few remaining whaling nations, has suspended its fin whale hunt on ground of animal welfare until August 31st.   Its fishery minister, Svandis Svavarsdottir, took the action after an Animal Welfare Board found that the methods used for killing whales do not conform to the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act.  The news comes as a blow to the last remaining commercial whaling operation, Havlur hf. Owner, Kristan Loftsson, a regular Captain Ahab, has fought hard to keep the industry in Iceland alive.  The unprecedented study found that 40% of the fin whales taken suffered slow and painful deaths.  Surveillance video showed that some whales took two hours to die.  Apparently the Icelandic government has concluded there is no future in an outdated cultural practice which justifies the tremendous suffering inflicted on the marine mammals. [photo credit: BBC]

During the 2022 hunting season 148 whales were killed, 73% of which were female with eleven being pregnant at the time of their death, which is a violation of the Animal Welfare Act.  Havlur hf was forced to allow observers from the Fisheries Directorate on board their vessels. Whalers use cannons to launch harpoons tipped with an explosive device.  They do not always result in a kill shot, and the grenades do not always explode. Havlur hf resumed whaling in 2009, killing 993 whales since then.  The meat is exported primarily to Japan. 2,576 tons of meat were shipped to Japan in 2023. The IFAW maintains that there is no humane way to kill an intelligent, sentient mammal as large as a whale short of destroy its entire carcass.  Fin whales are the second largest whale in the oceans, weighing 38 to 50 tons,  and are fast swimmers.  The ICUN considers the species vulnerable to extinction.  The US has imposed diplomatic sanctions on Iceland since 2014 because of its whaling trade.