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WDCS – the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society – has confirmed thatthe 2009 Icelandic minke whale hunt is imminent. According to localreports, the whaling vessel Johanna AR is to possibly set sail today,Tuesday, May 26th, out of Njardarvik harbour. Iceland has issuedcommercial whaling quotas for 100 minke whales and 150 endangered finwhales for the 2009 season.

Iceland’s Marine Research Institute (HAFRO) suggested last year that acommercial whaling quota for up to 400 minkes a year was feasible.However, those plans had to be dropped when the institute’s ownscientists showed a disturbing decline in the number of minke whalesfound off Iceland. "It is impossible to understand how a government canagree to any quota for minkes when that species showed a decline to 24%of the numbers found in a similar survey in 2001.”, said Sue Fisher of WDCS. “Add in a quota for150 endangered fin whales, and Iceland’s whale management seems asshaky and ill-founded as its economic management."

WDCS is calling on Iceland to withdraw all of its whaling quotasimmediately, as such hunts will only further damage Iceland’sreputation and economy. Fisher said, "Iceland should expect a swift and strongresponse from the world community. At a time when its national economyis in free-fall, the last thing Iceland needs is an unnecessary whalehunt that will cause consumers to think twice about purchasing itsfish, and could also wreak havoc on the country’s positive image as anature tourism destination. The successful local whale watch industry –a solid source of foreign income for the country – has called on thegovernment to stop all whaling. We urge the Prime Minister to heedthese calls, as well as those from abroad."

Icelandic whalers have been clear that their main goal is openingexport markets to Japan, as there is little local demand for whalemeat. In interviews with local press, a spokesperson for the IcelandicMinke Whalers Association has said that at least 50 minkes, and perhapsas much as 90% of the whaling quota, could be exported to Japan.

The hunt comes only three weeks before the annual meeting of theInternational Whaling Commission (IWC), during which countries will bediscussing a proposal on a “compromise deal” with Japan to bring itsrenegade whaling back under the control of the IWC. This "compromise",proposed earlier this year, does nothing to address Iceland’sresumption of commercial whaling nor Norway’s longstanding commercialhunts in defiance of the whaling ban. Fisher of WDCS warns that trying to do adeal with Japan, but ignoring the other whaling nations is "ridiculous"and "sets a dangerous precedent at the IWC rewarding intransigence thatwe fear other nations will follow."

A little background:

The Johanna AR is a 200 ton net trawler out of Þorlákshöfn that asrecently as May 14th was still landing fish. The vessel has quotas forcod, haddock, sole, and saithe, among other species. The vessel hasbeen leased by the three previous holders of minke whaling licenses,the Njordur KO, the Halldor Sigurdsson and the Drofn RE who havedecided to combine efforts in this larger boat so as to have a “moreefficient hunt”. The harpooner is Gudmundur Haraldsson. For a photo ofthe vessel, see http://skip.vb.is/skipaskra/skip/1043/

In addition, as only three minke whaling licenses were issued, it couldbe that the whalers hope to take advantage of Iceland’s transferablequota system and recruit other vessels. It was reported last week thatas many as 20 vessels had expressed an interest in getting a minkewhale quota this year. Minke whale meat will be processed by the EsjaKjottvinnslan company.

Iceland stopped commercial whaling in 1986 implicitly having agreed tothe whaling moratorium by not taking an objection against the decision.They did, however, continue to pursue scientific whaling until 1989.

In 1992, Iceland left the IWC and then re-joined in 2002 with alegally-disputed reservation against the moratorium. Some countriesstill do not recognize Iceland’s membership of the IWC. Iceland resumed‘scientific whaling’ in 2003, and over the course of its five yearlethal research programme, killed 200 minke whales from 2003 to 2007.It recommenced commercial whaling in 2006, and killed a total of sevenendangered fin whales and one minke whale in 2006. No fin whales havebeen killed since 2006, but for the quota year 2007/2008, Icelandkilled a total of 37 minke whales in commercial whaling, out of a quotaof 40 animals.

The domestic market for whale meat in Iceland is very low andhistorically much of the meat from Iceland’s whaling industry wasexported to Japan. The Icelandic press reported early in 2007 that 179tonnes of ‘slaughter waste’ representing about half of the fin whaleskilled in the commercial hunt had been dumped in landfills.

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