• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, September 22, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Environment

Iceland to End Whaling as Demand Dwindles

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
02/04/22
in Environment, World
whales

File photo: Abigail Lynn/Unsplash

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Iceland, one of the only countries that still hunts whales commercially, said Friday it plans to end the practice from 2024 as demand for whale meat dwindles.

For the past three years, Iceland’s whalers have barely taken their boats out into the North Atlantic despite the country’s large quotas.

Demand for Icelandic whale meat has decreased dramatically since Japan — Iceland’s main market, especially for fin whale meat — returned to commercial whaling in 2019 after a three-decade hiatus.

The extension of a no-fishing coastal zone, requiring whalers to go even further offshore, also made Iceland’s hunt more costly.

“There are few justifications to authorize the whale hunt beyond 2024”, Fisheries Minister Svandis Svavarsdottir, a member of the Left Green party, wrote in Morgunbladid newspaper.

“There is little proof that there is any economic advantage to this activity,” she said.

Iceland, Norway and Japan are the only countries that authorize the commercial whale hunt, despite criticism from animal rights activists and environmentalists, concerns about toxins in the meat and a shrinking market.

Iceland’s annual quotas for 2019 to 2023 allow for the hunting of 209 fin whales — the planet’s second-largest species after the blue whale and considered endangered — and 217 minke whales, one of the smallest species. 

Pandemic slowdown

But for the past three years, Iceland’s two main license holders have suspended their whale hunts, and one of them, IP-Utgerd, hung up its harpoons for good in 2020.

Only one whale has been killed in the past three years — a Minke whale in 2021.

Other issues have also made whaling more challenging.

Safety requirements for imported meat are more stringent than for local products, rendering Icelandic exports more difficult. 

Social distancing restrictions imposed to combat the coronavirus pandemic also meant Icelandic whale meat processing plants were unable to carry out their tasks.

In Iceland’s last full season in 2018, 146 fin whales and six Minke whales were killed. 

Iceland resumed commercial whaling in 2003 despite a 1986 IWC moratorium, which both it and Norway opposed.

In neighboring Norway, whalers have had similar experiences to Iceland in recent years, struggling to fill their quotas. 

The number of boats taking part in the hunt continues to shrink as well.

In 2021, 575 whales were harpooned in Norway, less than half the authorized quota, by the 14 boats still operating.

In Iceland, rather than ending up as steaks on a plate, whales have in recent years become the stars of a flourishing ecotourism scene.

More than 360,000 whale watchers flocked to the waters of the North Atlantic off Iceland to admire the majestic creatures in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic paralyzed the tourism sector.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Fans of Iceland
Dont Miss

Is Female-Friendly Iceland a Gender Equality Paradise?

by Marina Watson Pelaez
February 15, 2018
Next Post
India hijab ban

Protests Over Classroom Hijab Ban Grow in India

bitcoin

US Seizes $3.6 Bn of Stolen Bitcoin in Record Haul

Recommended

Chinese President Xi Jinping

China Announces ‘Strategic Partnership’ With Syria

September 22, 2023
Man holding up a colored LGBT flag

France Sets Up Embassy Fund to Defend LGBTQ Rights

September 19, 2023
US Authorities Seize Artworks Allegedly Stolen by Nazis

US Authorities Seize Artworks Allegedly Stolen by Nazis

September 19, 2023
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference

Japan PM to Replace Foreign and Defense Ministers: Reports

September 12, 2023
A man walks with his belongings through the rubble in an alleyway in the earthquake-damaged old city in Marrakesh on September 9, 2023

Morocco Quake Death Toll Passes 2,000: Ministry

September 10, 2023
Pro-Trump protester in front of Capitol Hill.

The Ominous (and Irresponsible) Chatter of a Civil War 

September 4, 2023

Opinion

Pro-Trump protester in front of Capitol Hill.

The Ominous (and Irresponsible) Chatter of a Civil War 

September 4, 2023
A bamboo-based design raises family homes safely above water levels to cope with raising water levels in Bangladesh.

The West Owes Climate Refugees Reparations Now

August 14, 2023
President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.

Boxing Day Comes to South Florida

July 5, 2023
‘Deaths of Despair:’ Why Are US Suicides on the Rise?

An Inspired Choice to Lead the CDC

June 13, 2023
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 19, 2022.

Florida Man Channels Benito Mussolini

June 13, 2023
Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

May 30, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post