As the whale watching season begins in the St. Lawrence, Iceland has just launched its cetacean hunting season. Two whalers set sail on Wednesday to spear minke and fin whales, despite an international whaling moratorium.
After forgoing annual whaling campaigns since 2018, the company Hvalur HF has decided to revive the industry this year, despite criticism from environmental groups and the whale watching industry in Iceland.
According to quotas set by Iceland’s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, hunters will be able to kill a maximum of 161 fin whales and 217 minke whales by September. These two species, which are frequently observed in the waters of the St. Lawrence by cruise passengers in the summer, would be sufficiently abundant to be hunted, according to the Icelandic authorities.
In the case of the fin whale, however, the available data indicate that on an international scale, the species is vulnerable, having been subject to intensive commercial whaling during the 20th century. In Canada, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife classified the species as “special concern” during an assessment completed in 2019.
meat for sale
If the revival of hunting is already raising criticism from environmental groups, Iceland is also evaluating the possibility of ending commercial hunting as early as 2024.
You should know that the market for the meat of the fin whales that will be harpooned comes down to Japan, a country that has itself decided to relaunch commercial whaling. In this context, it becomes difficult to sell the meat on this export market. This situation has persisted for several years.
Iceland has still harpooned more than 1,700 whales over the years, despite the existence of an international moratorium on commercial whaling put in place in 1986 by member countries of the International Whaling Commission to prevent the disappearance of several species. Including Norway and Japan, there are only three countries in the world that practice hunting on an industrial basis.
In the case of Japan, commercial whaling was revived in 2019, after Tokyo’s decision to leave the IWC in December 2018. The country hunts three species, including the sei whale, a species classified as “endangered” on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and Bryde’s whale, whose precise population status is unknown.
Before relaunching commercial whaling, Japan had previously tried, unsuccessfully, to convince other member countries to relaunch commercial whaling. Tokyo has also conducted for several years a so-called “scientific” hunt in Antarctica, a practice denounced by certain States, including Australia, and criticized by the International Court of Justice. Hunting in Japan has killed just over 10,000 whales in 30 years.