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Iceland’s Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Svandis Svavarsdottir, has suggested that the nation may cease commercial whaling by 2024, stating that there was no loner any economic justification for the practice.
Iceland, together with Norway and Japan, is one of the few remaining countries that allows the hunting of whales for profit. Quotas set by the International Whaling Commission allowed Iceland to kill 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales on an annual basis, but there is so little demand for whale meat that only one whale – a minke – has been killed in the last three years.
‘Why should Iceland take the risk of keeping up whaling, which has not brought any economic gain, in order to sell a product for which there is hardly any demand?’ Ms Svavarsdottir wrote in the Icelandic newspaper, Morgunbladid, adding that there were ‘few justifications to authorize the whale hunt beyond 2024.’
The decline in demand for Icelandic whale meat was mainly due to Japan’s resumption of commercial whaling in 2019. Japan had previously the largest consumer of Iceland’s whale exports. Other factors caused by the pandemic and the extension of a coastal marine protected area have also created financial difficulties for the whaling industry.
The news has been welcomed by conservation groups, who have campaigned for decades to end the brutal practice of commercial whaling. ‘This is hugely welcome news,’ said Vanessa Williams-Grey of the UK’s Whale and Dolphin Conservation charity. ‘Icelandic whalers have killed hundreds of whales in recent years, despite almost zero domestic demand.’
In another positive signal for Icelandic whale populations, the island saw something of a boom in whale-watching tourism before the pandemic struck. As restrictions finally ease around the globe, the increased profitability of living whales over dead ones will surely hasten the demise of an industry that virtually nobody wants.