A plan to kill over 2 whales in five years. This is the decision of the Icelandic authorities that has wreaked havoc in the country. Environmentalists are in revolt because despite the whale meat market is in crisis, the slaughter continues.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himA plan to kill over 2 whales in five years. It is this decision of the Icelandic authorities that has wreaked havoc in the country. Environmentalists are in revolt because despite the whale meat market is in crisis, the slaughter continues.
Despite the ban on commercial hunting of the IWC (International Whaling Commission), the Icelandic authorities authorize a new carnage against the whales. And while Japan lurks behind hunting for scientific purposes (and has only recently come out for real reasons), Iceland and Norway are openly talking about commercial ends.
Yet, in recent years, the whale meat trade is in full crisis and public opinion is increasingly sensitive to the animal rights issue, but apparently the Icelandic government is determined to go straight on its way.
The whalers will, in fact, be allowed to harpoon whales and fin whales in Icelandic waters every year, until 2023. The minister with responsibility for fisheries, Kristjan Thor Juliusson, said that "these numbers are sustainable and based on the most recent scientific research".
The impression is that every time it gives the green light to the carnage, it hides behind the sustainability factor, while we know that victims are also very often rare hybrids, as happened last summer when blue whales and pregnant females were killed.
"The Icelandic government's decision to continue killing whales, which are among the most peaceful and intelligent beings on the planet, is morally repugnant and financially bankrupt," explains Vanessa Williams-Gray, a whale and god conservation activist. dolphins.
As we know, whales are mainly hunted in Norway, Iceland and Japan, evading the hunting ban. But according to the government, all of this would serve to maintain birth control.
"During the most recent tally in 2015, their population in the central North Atlantic was estimated at 37, three times the number in the 1987 census," a government statement said.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature also spoke of whale specimens on the rise, but that doesn't mean the whales are out of danger, so activists say the fact that they are no longer endangered shouldn't be considered as a green light for the start of hunting.
Another thing that doesn't add up is the economic picture. Animalists and operators in the whale tourism industry are opposed to hunting and swear that "In Iceland whales are worth more alive than dead".
According to a recent report from the University of Iceland, whale tourism turnover was 3,2 billion crowns (20 million pounds) in 2017, while whaling only brought in 1,7 billion.
Together with Norway, Iceland therefore continues to challenge the ban on commercial whaling.
Read also:
- Whaling: the massacre begins again in Iceland (PHOTO and VIDEO)
- Japan killed 251 whales
Dominella Trunfio
