Iceland: Big Whales versus Big Problems
Volume LXI · No. 2 · Madeira, Portugal · Tuesday June 23, 2009
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While Icelandic whalers haul in huge endangered fin whales from their new commercial hunt in the north Atlantic, economic and political forces are in motion that may well end the new commercial venture.
Iceland’s economy is in tatters, and the only hope to restore the destroyed banking system may be for Iceland to join the European Union. However, the EU is unlikely to welcome Iceland to their fold unless Iceland agrees to stop hunting the endangered whales.
Last Thursday evening, one of Iceland’s catcher boats hauled in two fin whales estimated to weigh 35 tonnes each. Fin whales were severely depleted by commercial whaling in its heyday, but Iceland has awarded itself the incredible quota of 150 fin whales, along with 100 minke whales for 2009. The slaughter is going on as the IWC is meeting, in violation of the moratorium on commercial whaling. Last year’s quota was only 40 minke whales and nine fin whales, so the 2009 quota represents a huge jump in bloodshed.
Britain, France, Germany, and the United States have protested the increased quotas for Iceland’s defiant whaling industry.
Kristjan Loftsson, the head of Iceland’s whaling company, told AFP reporters that Iceland would likely have to give up whaling if it joined the EU. Loftsson himself is strongly opposed to having Iceland join the EU, seeing it as a threat to the Icelandic fishing industry.
In the meantime, with Iceland’s tourist industry hurting from the general economic climate, many Icelanders are wondering why the government is pursuing increased quotas for a few whales which is sure to raise the ire of environmentalists and lead to tourism boycotts? A number of companies in Europe that import resources from Iceland have contacted the government protesting the return to whaing.