Whaling: Iceland says stop after 17 years

Good news comes from Iceland where, after 17 years, it has been decided to stop whaling. This was announced by the two main whalers on the island.

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

Good news comes from Iceland where, after 17 years, it was decided to stop whaling. This was announced by the two main whalers on the island.

The reasons behind this decision are not exactly what one would expect, namely the awareness of how unethical this extermination is. The stop to whaling was decided for summer 2019 as it puts tourism at risk and is considered too expensive.

At the base, therefore, commercial concerns. Iceland's tourism was suffering too much from the situation and sinking the country's economy.

In fact, whales are one of the great tourist attractions of Iceland and it is no coincidence that, just when Hvalur, the most famous Icelandic company in the country specialized in whaling, has not killed any (we are talking about 2016), tourism grew by 38%.

As the well-known also explained environmentalist and actor from the TV series Downton Abbey, Peter Egan, in un tweet:

"Killing these specimens hurts tourism focused on whale watching which produces double the profit of the hunting industry."

Killing whales wounds a whale-watching industry that brings in twice as much money ;
REYKJAVIK,Tourism to Iceland is plunging faster than a harpooned great whale, sinking the national economy Whaling harpoons Icelandic tourism & the whole nation suffers https://t.co/pUyXhxq6pp

- Peter Egan (@ PeterEgan6) June 27, 2019

Hvalur was the first to announce the stop due to the lack of technical time to prepare its fleet (due to delays in the granting of permits) but now the renunciation by the other whaling ship operating in the Icelandic seas, the IP-Utgerd, has also arrived, which will dedicate itself to this year to the harvest of sea cucumbers. As the senior officials of the company stated, it was decided not to undertake the hunt due to the extension of the forbidden zone which would have forced the boats to go much further out, increasing the costs of the operation.

The end of the cruel extermination of cetaceans had previously been interrupted only in 2002 for a year, then resumed in 2003 violating the moratorium of the International Commission for Whaling, which wants to protect these animals from the risk of extinction.

Whatever the real reasons for the stop, for at least a year the whales in Iceland will breathe a sigh of relief! And we hope that also in the future these cetaceans will be free to swim in the sea without danger.

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