Iceland bans controversial whaling – trigger is not animal welfare
Created: 02/14/2022, 18:55
By: Jan Trieselmann
Hunting minke whales (photo) and fin whales is currently still permitted in Iceland.
But the applicable quotas will soon expire.
Then only Norway and Japan hunt the marine mammals.
© Ursula Tscherter/dpa
Along with Norway and Japan, Iceland is one of the last whaling countries.
But that will soon be over - but not primarily because of animal welfare.
Reykjavik – Iceland’s government will ban whaling – from 2024. Animal welfare organizations and tourists should be particularly happy.
But the whaling ban in Iceland is not primarily for animal welfare reasons.
The Nordic island nation is one of the last countries, along with Japan and Norway, to still allow whale hunting - although the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has banned commercial whaling since 1986.
Iceland is now allowing the current catch quotas to expire at the end of 2023.
Iceland ends whaling: Ban is mainly due to whale meat customer Japan
209 fin whales and 217 minke whales: That's how many whales hunters in Iceland are currently allowed to shoot per summer.
These catch quotas are valid until the end of 2023, when they end.
The reality has been different for a long time anyway: in the past three years there has been virtually no whale hunting in Iceland - according to the news agency afp, hunters have only killed one whale during this period.
state name | Republic of Iceland |
capital city | Reykjavik |
resident | 361,000 (as of 2019) |
population density | Four people per square kilometer |
surface | 103,125 square kilometers |
The reason: Japan, Iceland's main buyer of whale meat.
The Asian country of Japan went back to whaling in 2019, out of tradition.
Since then, Iceland has had great difficulty bringing whale meat to the Japanese market.
"Unless there are contrary developments, there will be little reason to allow whaling after 2024," Iceland's Fisheries Minister Svandis Svavarsdottir told the Icelandic newspaper Morgunbladid.
The left-green politician adds: "There is little evidence that there is any economic benefit to practicing this activity."
Whaling ban in Iceland from 2024: Tourism also has a major impact
Environmental and animal protection organizations such as Greenpeace and PETA have long criticized the hunt for whales.
As a result, the animal welfare organization International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is pleased: campaign manager Andreas Dinkelmeyer describes the whaling ban as a "fantastic announcement," according to ARD information.
Almost two years ago, Peta explained that whaling in Iceland hardly had a chance: Whale meat was unpopular in Iceland itself and Icelandic whalers were no longer sympathetic to the hunt.
Added to this is the importance of tourism in Iceland: According to Peta, more and more people are visiting the Nordic island state to watch whales.
According to the Ice Whale tourism organization, it is responsible for almost 20 percent of Iceland tourists, as reported by the watson news portal.
Whales are rarely seen in Germany, but at the beginning of last year a ten meter long whale was discovered in the Baltic Sea.
(Jan Trieselmann with afp)
