Ups and downs of fin whaling in Iceland

Fin whaling was finally allowed to start in Iceland this year on Friday September 1, subject to stringent regulations although some of them would not be valid until today, September 18.

But whaling is not going as planned. Initially the weather conditions were bad so that the ships stayed in Reykjavik harbour over the weekend, with the plan of going out to the whaling station in Hvalfjordur on the Monday to pick up whaling equipment and then sailing out to hunt.

But that plan didn’t work either, as early on Monday morning, September 4, two activists – Anahita Babei and Elissa Bijou – climbed up the masts of the two whaling ships and stayed there for 33 hours. Within an hour of getting to the top, the police climbed up and took Anahita’s rucksack containing food, water, medication, sleeping bag and disposable adult nappies, so she was without necessities for the rest of the time. The police refused to give her water, on the basis that by denying her necessities, the occupation would be shorter. Elissa was safe as her boat was further out so was inaccessible to the police.

After eventually descending, they were taken to a police station and charged with squatting (!) before being released.

The whaling boats then sailed to the whaling station but did not leave there until late the following day.

On Friday, the boats came back to the whaling station. During the winter, Kristjan Loftsson from the whaling company Hvalur had got an electric fence put up all round Hvalur’s property – it’s actually debatable whether Hvalur owns the whole area that is fenced off – but a fence has not stopped protestors from the Paul Watson Foundation UK and Hard to Port from standing outside the station and monitoring the whales coming in.

When Hvalur 8 came back on Thursday morning with its first whale, they noticed immediately that the whale had two harpoons in it. Hvalur 9 came back later that day with two whales, one of which had two harpoons in it. Meanwhile, the manager of the whaling station boasted, when interviewed in the right-wing newspaper Morgunbladid, that whaling had gone well despite bad weather conditions and low visibility.

The new regulation stipulates that whaling must be carried out in good weather with good visibility, thus contravening the new regulation. Whales are also expected to die within one minute of being shot, which was obviously not the case with whales that had to be shot twice. A lawyer with the Iceland Nature Conservation Association immediately charged Hvalur with breaking the rules of the new regulation.

Thursday afternoon, however, brought welcome news – at least to those opposed to whaling. Iceland’s Food and Veterinary Authority, commonly known as MAST, declared that Hvalur 8 had to stop whaling immediately and return to the whaling station. They had looked at the video taken by a monitoring person from the Fisheries Directorate on board when the first whale of the season was killed and discovered that not only did it require two shots to die, but it took 29 minutes for the second harpoon to be fired and even then it took several minutes for the animal to die. This was clear violation of the animal welfare law. They also found that the first harpoon landed outside the designated target area, which also meant a breach of the regulation.

MAST say they have “suspended” operations of Hvalur 8 rather than stopping them. If Hvalur can demonstrate that improvements have been made which are convincing to MAST, it will be allowed to go out again. Unfortunately Hvalur 9 has not been stopped, even though one of its first whales had two harpoons in its body.

Meanwhile, September is ticking on and lack of light will become a limiting factor within the next two weeks, not to mention windy weather which also stops boats going out. And whether Loftsson can convince MAST that he has provided adequate training for crews is another unknown – that is something that comes into force today, September 18. So far, there has been no further news about this.

Th head of MAST has been quoted as saying that now they have something tangible to use when Hvalur boats breach the animal welfare law. Let’s hope that the Fisheries Minister decides at the end of the season to not give out a licence for the next five years.

Currently, 14 whales have been caught, 3 of them arriving on Friday.

Update, 30 September: The whaling season has finished and the harpoons have been removed from both boats. A total of 24 whales were killed, but one of them was lost at sea when the line broke. In addition, one whale that was caught had an almost fully developed foetus that slipped out when an incision was made in its mother’s belly at the whaling station.

The team from the Paul Watson Foundation noted that a vessel from the Icelandic Coastguard arrived at the whaling station 2 days ago and was tied up next to Hvalur 8. But this has not been reported in the Icelandic media so the reason for its presence remains unknown.

Fin whaling can resume in Iceland

Whaling can resume in Iceland tomorrow, September 1, but under more stringent conditions concerning whaling methods, equipment used and training. Fisheries Minister Svandís Svavarsdóttir says the regulation will take effect tomorrow. No decision has been taken on whether whaling will be permitted next year.

During the summer, whaling has been one of Iceland’s hottest issues.

Svavarsdóttir’s decision was based on several reports. Initially, the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) had produced a report that was the result of videos taken on board ship and veterinary inspections on land and basically said that whaling was inhumane and the methods that whaling company Hvalur proposed to enhance the accuracy of whaling – the use of artificial intelligence and electricity to stun whales – were unlikely to remedy the situation.

On the basis of this situation, the Minister commissioned a report by a Council of Specialists to review the MAST report, which it did, producing a report two days before whaling was due to start and prompting the Minister to put a stop to whaling a day later until August 31. Besides confirming the views of MAST, it also pointed out that it was impossible to tell the sex of a whale and if it was milking or pregnant.

The trade union leader for the local town of Akranes held a public meeting to call on the Minister to review her decision, saying it was unfair on the Hvalur workers to miss out on their lucrative summer work. The atmosphere at this meeting was angry. However, it turns out that the Hvalur CEO, Kristján Loftsson, kept on all his staff at the whaling station, which I noticed when driving past it one day and noted vehicles onsite. Over the winter months he had also had another fence put up to deter protesters.

When announcing her decision to stop whaling, Svavarsdóttir said she would commission a working group to look more closely at issues raised by the Council of Specialists’ report to see if more humane whaling methods were possible, as animal welfare concerns were the main basis of her decision. The report was published at the beginning of the week (in Icelandic).

The report concluded that it was possible that the cumulative impact of the methods and tools tested during the summer could reduce the time taken for a whale to die, although the authors said they did not have enough time – or in some cases expert knowledge – to come to an informed decision on all the points in the report. It pointed out, amongst other things, that there was little incentive for companies to invest in better whale-killing technology and materials as so few countries – only Iceland, Japan and Norway – were engaged in whaling.

Note, however, that last year Norwegian minke whale specialist Egil Ole Øen had been invited to Iceland by Loftsson in August to try and improve the number of whales killed first time. He told MAST that various measures had been carried out which were designed to improve the time to kill – but they obviously didn’t.

It turns out that during the summer the Hvalur workers had been looking into issues that were covered in the latest report, such as how fast they could reload a harpoon gun if the initial shot did not kill the whale (albeit on land and not at sea) and gruesome issues such as using more explosive so it could actually damage a whale’s vital organs. They had also received training. And did maintenance work and prepared ships for whaling once again, as Loftsson assumed that they could begin killing on September 1.

At the beginning of the year, Svavarsdottir tasked the consultancy Intellicon to investigate the economic impact of whaling in Iceland. They produced their report a week ago, after looking into aspects such as whether there was a market for whale meat and whale products such as whale meal, whether there was an effect on outside trade with Iceland and the number of tourists coming to Iceland, and the effect on Hvalur workers who receive lucrative amounts of money for their work.

The only countries to which whale meat may be exported are Norway and Japan, and it turns out that whale meat consumption in Japan is minimal and has decreased by 99% over the last four decades. Whaling creates a negative image for Iceland which contradicts the image put forward by tourist bodies. Hvalur has lost money from whaling over the years and at its best, in 2016, whale meat accounted for 0.79% of total export value of fisheries’ products. Whale meal has been difficult to sell (as pig food) as it does not fulfil the conditions for that, while whale oil has been used as fuel for the whaling boats. Work has been carried out on making a food supplement to help with iron deficiency, which could potentially be sold in Japan and Norway.

The report also pointed out that whaling provided significant income for the 120 or so employees of Hvalur during the hunting season, and that this represented a significant proportion of total income for many of them.

Svandís Svavarsdóttir had been one of the members of the parliamentary Althing who had put forward a proposal to look at the overall economic effects of whaling way back in 2014 so it was no surprise that in February last year, soon after she became Fisheries Minister, she said that didn’t see any economic reason for whaling to continue and was unsure whether a whaling licence would be reissued when the current licence runs out at the end of 2023.

Meanwhile, opposition to whaling in Iceland has increased significantly since May, with 42% of the population opposed to whaling in August this year compared to 35% in May 2022. Men are more likely to be pro-whaling than women, but even so the proportion of men pro-whaling has decreased from 48% in May 2022 to 38% in August 2023.

Whaling has been stopped in Iceland

Whaling was due to start in Iceland today. But Iceland’s Fisheries Minister, Svandis Svavarsdottir from the Left-Green Party, yesterday put a stop to the hunting of fin whales. Well, officially she postponed it until 1 September, but that’s usually the end of the season anyway (though it wasn’t last year).

Various events led up to her decision.

Anti-whaling campaigners have monitored the whaling station intensively and provided images to the press.

Last year, Svavarsdottir decided that both whaling boats had to have someone on board monitoring the whaling and videos had to be taken when whales were killed.

Then about two months ago, on the instigation of Svavarsdottir, Iceland’s Food and Veterinary Authority – commonly known as MAST – produced a comprehensive report on the 2022 whaling season, which showed that a sizeable proportion of whales did not die instantly and some took up to 2 hours to die, while in one case a whale was chased for 5 hours with a harpoon sticking out of its back. The chase only ended when the boat suffered engine failure.

Svavarsdottir was horrified but said she was powerless to do anything as there were no legal grounds to stop whaling this year. She did, however, decide to appoint a Council of Specialists to look into the matter further. This group also took interviews with other whaling specialists, including the Norwegian minke whale expert Egil Ole Øen, who whaler Kristjan Loftsson had consulted. Their results were published on 19 June.

One of the main issues was whether whaling corresponded to a law on animal welfare, Act no. 55/2013 (in Icelandic). And it doesn’t. The group looked at issues such as whether it is possible to tell the sex of a whale before it is killed (it isn’t) or whether it is pregnant or milking (no in both cases) and pointed out that an orphaned whale has a negligible chance of surviving. They also looked at the “new methods of killing” devised by Loftsson, and didn’t think much of them.

After the Council of Specialists had produced their results, Svavarsdottir had enough information and power to put a stop to whaling, or at least postpone it until September 1. Campaigners are delighted, but leaders of the Progressive Party and Independence Party – the other parties in the coalition government – are less pleased.

Iceland has just had a change of Justice Ministers. Outgoing minister, Jon Gunnarsson from the right-wing Independence Party, said in an interview yesterday that it was difficult for the Left-Greens to be part of the coalition government as they disagreed on too many issues.

And that was before Svavarsdottir made her decision to stop whaling.

Vilhjalmur Birgisson, trade union leader for the nearby town of Akranes, is also furious at the decision, saying it’s unfair on the workers. But in fact, the local public health committee had only given the whaling station a licence a few days ago, and only until July 12, so he shouldn’t be complaining. Loftsson was supposed to make alterations to the working facilities at the whaling station, and hadn’t done so.

Nothing has been heard from Loftsson since the decision, but I’ll post updates if/when he reacts publicly.

It should be noted that soon after she became fisheries minister, Svavarsdottir announced that many factors pointed to quotas for whaling not being renewed after the current whaling quota runs out at the end of this year. And way back in 2014, she had been one of the members of the parliamentary Althing who had put forward a proposal to look at the overall economic effects of whaling. So it seems she has actually been anti-whaling for a long time, but could not state that publicly after she became Fisheries Minister.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised it there’s an election in September. And given the state of opinion polls at the moment, there’s no guarantee that either the Independence Party or the Progressive Party will be part of the next government.

Update, 22 June: There was finally an interview with Kristjan Loftsson today in Morgunbladid newspaper (the only newspaper/ media outlet that Loftsson will talk to). He called Svandis Svavarsdottir “a raging communist”, and said that the decision had come like a bolt of thunder. Vilhjalmur Birgisson also called a meeting tonight in Akranes to discuss how abruptly the decision to stop whaling had been made. Many in the audience worked with the whaling company Hvalur. What was noticeable at the meeting was that many points WEREN’T brought up.

Whaling is not humane

After a number of delays, mainly because of the long time taken for Kristján Loftsson of Hvalur to respond, the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST in Icelandic) has finally produced its report (in Icelandic) on whaling. And it is damming.

The data was divided into two: one where a veterinarian from MAST examined dead whales after they were brought back to the whaling station, and the other after Iceland’s Fisheries Minister had stipulated that one crew member on board ship should monitor the killing of whales. In the first instance, 84 whales were examined of which 21 (25%) had received more than one harpoon shot. Five of these had received 3 shots and 2 had received 4 shots. Bear in mind that it takes 8 minutes to reload a harpoon.

One animal was chased for almost one hour and the other for a whole two hours. In addition, one whale was chased for 5 hours with a harpoon “in the wrong place” in its back. Eventually, the line broke and the whale swam away. The chase ended because of engine problems with the boat.

In the second half of the whaling period, 14 out of 58 fin whales were shot more than once (24%) and 2 animals were shot 4 times. Six whales were shot during this time – one of them twice – without an inspector from the Fisheries Directorate being present. In 5 instances in 4 whales, the harpoon did not explode and in one case it exploded too soon. Seventy-three percent of the whales killed were female.

A survey was also carried out in 2014, but last year the whales fared worse. According to the definition from the IWC, 59% of whales died instantaneously last year (instantaneous death rate) and the median time to death was 11.5 minutes in animals that did not die instantly.

Last year, in the first half of the whaling period, one female was recorded as milking and 11 were pregnant.

Descriptions with the whaling carried out in the second period are graphic. With one whale, “the grenade had gone through the liver but did not explode. The heart and lungs were unaffected. It was recorded that the whale had swum and blown for 11 minutes before it died. Only one shot was used.” Another whale swam, blew and dived for 19 minutes after the first shot, before the second shot killed it. Yet another whale was shot 4 times, but grenades 2 and 3 had not exploded. It took almost an hour for the animal to die.

Norwegian specialist Egil Ole Øen has a lot of experience in Norwegian whaling, though there the whales killed are minke not fin whales. He had been invited to Iceland by Loftsson in August to try and improve the number of whales killed first time. He told MAST that various measures had been carried out which were designed to improve the rate of first kill – but obviously didn’t.

A lot of the report consisted of Kristján Loftsson’s response. He said he wanted to see the videos on which the report were based, which he received in late February. And he insisted that the Act on welfare of animals did not apply to whales, producing for instance legal information from Norway – on minke whales – to prove his point. MAST disagrees with Loftsson’s views on this.

On p. 30 of the report, there is a graphic description in English of what happens when a projectile hits a whale. Not nice reading. More English can be read in Egil Ole Øen’s reaction to the MAST report that was sent to Loftsson for comments.

What is interesting is that Loftsson says that two new methods of killing whales have been developed during last winter. One is the use of artificial intelligence to assist the shooter, and the other is an improved “secondary killing method”. The latter is based on a method, albeit “improved”, which was originally used 70 years ago. MAST is also sceptical about this.

In news coverage of the report, MAST said that it was undeniable that whales had suffered, sometimes for a long time, and it is unacceptable in their view.

Pirate MP Andrés Ingi Jónsson today asked Fisheries Minister Svandís Svavarsdóttir whether whaling would be banned this year, in light of the report from MAST. She replied that Hvalur had a licence for this year so it would be complicated to renege on the licence. She did say, though, that in light of the methods used with whaling and the laws on animal welfare, “we need to look at whether this industry belongs to the past rather than the future”.

Perhaps the law can be changed.

Anti-whaling groups are going to make a concerted effort this year to get whaling banned.

Update: Two Hvalur crew members have charged MAST under the Personal Protection Act as they are recognizable in videos taken on board.

Fin whale meat – some of it old – on its way to Japan

The fin whale meat from Iceland’s 2022 whaling season, when 148 whales were killed, is currently on its way to Japan, according to a recent newspiece (in Icelandic). But neither the name of the boat it’s on nor the route it’s taking are known, as Kristjan Loftsson (KL), the man behind the whaling, refused to answer questions from the reporter.

His reluctance to answer questions is nothing new, as he rarely does that.

The whale meat was loaded onto a foreign cargo vessel in the town of Hafnarfjordur, which is also the location of the headquarters and processing facilities of KL’s company Hvalur (which means Whale). Almost 3,000 tonnes were loaded onto the vessel a few days before Christmas, much more than was transported in recent years, when around 1,500-2,000 tonnes were transported.

Media sources say that the Japanese are so eager to buy KL’s whale meat that they’ve bought up older stock that was still in the freezer in Hafnarfjordur.

But last year was the first year that whaling happened in Iceland since 2018. And it hadn’t happened in 2016 or 2017, so some if the whale meat might have been even older.

Which mans that “older” whale meat must be almost five years old, or even older. Is it still edible – fit for human consumption – when it’s that old? I’m vegan, but I doubt very much that it would be edible if it was that old. So what will it be used for? Pet food? I suspect there are regulations around that too.

And thinking about it, I wonder whether the buyer knows how old the old stock is.

Last year, Fisheries Minister Svandis Svavarsdottir announced that she didn’t see any economic reason for whaling to continue after 2023, when the current fin whaling permit runs out, and that she would set up a committee to look into the matter. It’s questionable whether the fact that KL has managed to sell all his whale meat will have an impact on her decision.

The vessel loaded with whale meat apparently has enough oil on board to last until it gets to Japan.

Fin whaling in Iceland meets opposition and documentation

Kristjan Loftsson and his company Hvalur started hunting fin whales two weeks ago, and have caught at least 21 so far. But Svandis Svavarsdottir, who is Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, seems not to be too happy with the whale hunting.

Yesterday, she announced a draft regulation which would involve training some crew members to monitor animal welfare aspects of the killing so that they are not killed inhumanely (which many are). One “animal welfare” person shall be on each boat, and shall attend a course approved by the Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST). They should gather information about the hunting and video the whole killing process, and then send data and visual material to a monitoring veterinarian.

The draft regulation is open for comments for two weeks.

Next year, she wants a monitoring veterinarian to be on the whaling boats.

In a recent interview, Kristjan Loftsson dismissed anti-whaling protestors as “anti-everything” and also said that in past years, there were far more people protesting at the whaling station than now. He hasn’t taken into account the opposition to fin whale hunting of those involved in the whale-watching business and it may not have dawned on him that the handful of people protesting outside the whaling station are actually filming and monitoring details of each whale brought in, including one whale which they think had drowned and others that had two harpoon wounds – meaning they had not died immediately.

Marine advocacy group Hard to Port, which has been monitoring the whaling along with Sea Shepherd, wrote on their Facebook page on 5 July:

The landing of a female fin whale in the afternoon of July 4th has confirmed concerns about animal welfare violations during Iceland’s fin whale hunts.

One of the two animals that were caught by Hvalur 9 had a harpoon visibly stuck in its side.

The harpoon with a malfunctioned penthrite grenade was quickly removed from [sic] workers of the whaling station.

The penthrite grenade is meant to detonate deep inside the animal to ensure an instantaneous death of the whale. Today’s documented case confirms, that these devices seem to be unreliable. The TTD (time to death) for this animal remains uncertain. A malfunctioned grenade rules out a quick death of the animal – it most likely went through a lot of suffering.

After a description of the penthrite grenade, the description continues:

We are only two weeks into the 2022 whaling season, which started on 22nd of June, and we have already witnessed and documented animals who had been harpooned twice, whales with their heads pierced by a harpoon and now this case of a dud grenade. How many whales have to suffer until the Icelandic government takes a closer look into these obvious animal welfare offences?

Monitoring of the whaling ships is now going to start at sea as well, as Sea Shepherd UK have sailed a commercial charter vessel to Iceland to monitor whaling from the sea.

Svandis has previously said that that she didn’t see any economic reason for whaling to continue after 2023, when the current fin whaling permit runs out, and that she would set up a committee to look into the matter. This will still happen, she says. And back in 2014, she was one of a group of Althingi members (all of whom were members of the Opposition parties at the time) who were pushing for an independent assessment into the economic advantages of whaling and whether it was detrimental to Iceland’s interests.

So she seems to be doing as much as she can to hamper Kristjan Loftsson’s whaling antics.

Fin whaling could resume in Iceland this summer

Iceland hasn’t hunted fin whales since 2018 and in early February the current Fisheries Minister, Svandis Svavarsdottir, announced that she didn’t see any economic reason for whaling to continue after 2023, when the current fin whaling permit runs out and she would set up a committee to look into the matter. The news was widely reported and I suspect some people presumed whaling would never happen again.

However, yesterday’s free newspaper, Fréttablaðið, had a picture on its front page of one of the whale boats, Hvalur 9, in dry dock, where it will be painted and undergo repairs before being used in whaling. And another newspaper, Morgunblaðið, had a long article about Kristjan Loftsson – the man behind fin whaling – and why it has not happened during the last few summers. He blames MAST, the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority, as they had complained about whale processing being done outside and there had been endless missives between him and MAST which finally got resolved last autumn.

When asked by the reporter for Morgunblaðið newspaper what grounds there were for selling whale meat this year, he pointed out that the “the emperor in Japan appears not to have pumped as much money into Japanese whaling so the prices have improved somewhat. It should work out as long as the krona does not depreciate dramatically. Like all exports, it is so dependent on the currency exchange”.

Because Loftsson only seems to want to talk to Morgunblaðið, most of the other media outlets in Iceland rehash any news about whaling from Morgunblaðið – and thus take it as given that whaling will resume in summer. However, the investigative newspaper Stundin differs in its coverage. Under the heading “Kristján will probably go whaling this summer: we have no stock left“, Stundin reporter Ingi Freyr Vilhjalmsson talked to Gunnlaugur Gunnlaugsson, the manager of the whaling station who, when asked when whaling would begin, said, “Nothing has been decided about when we’ll begin. It’s all under review. There are various issues in the melting pot.” One of these is probably the bureaucracy in Japan around testing whale meat, which has proved problematic in the past.

The other whaling boat, Hvalur 8, will go into the dry dock when the other is out. When asked whether the reason for putting Hvalur 9 into dry dock is to prepare the vessel for whaling, Gunnlaugsson said, “It’s got to be ready if it comes to that. Otherwise it’s Kristjan [Loftsson] who knows all about it.”

Loftsson seems indefatigable but will turn 80 in March next year.

Although Loftsson basically says that everything will be hunky dory as long as the Icelandic krona doesn’t depreciate dramatically, he may be a tad optimistic. An article in The Guardian newspaper says that in 2016, whale meat accounted for about 0.1% of total meat consumption in Japan. And whalers are having other difficulties: warmer seas may be sending whales further north.

The Guardian also points out there is a “stubborn refusal among Japanese people to eat enough whale meat to make killing them a profitable venture”.

If the Japanese are hesitant to eat whale meat, is there actually a market for Icelandic whale meat? Methinks not.

Neither fin whales nor minke whales to be killed off Iceland this summer

Last week, it was reported that once again Iceland would not be hunting fin whales this year. Kristjan Loftsson, the man behind the killing, gave several reasons for his decision.

One reason is that since Japan started to allow commercial whaling in 2018 rather than “research whaling”, the Japanese government now subsidizes Japanese whaling ships, which makes it difficult for Loftsson to compete commercially (plus of course he has to get the whale meat to Japan via a circuitous route as so few ports are willing to allow him in).

Loftsson also says that the Japanese have stricter requirements for chemical analysis for Icelandic whale meat than for their own whale meat.

But he also sees potential problems when processing the meat due to COVID-19. He says that the work involves staff working near each other. If one of his employees becomes infected with the coronavirus, all the others will have to go into quarantine for two weeks, which means it will be impossible to cut up the dead whales, etc. He actually has faced legal action for carrying out whale processing in the open air, but has wangled his way out of it.

Although he will not be killing more whales this year, Loftsson still intends to carry on with the university-based research on making gelatin out of whale bones, an iron-rich supplement for people suffering from anaemia, and using whale blubber for medicinal purposes and food production.

On 2018, 146 fin whales and 6 minke whales were killed off Iceland.

The minke whalers basically gave up in 2018, as  their main hunting grounds near Reykjavik had become a whaling sanctuary. That year, they stopped soon after they started.

Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, who runs the company IP-útgerð that ran the minke-whaling operation, said this week that he does not envisage doing any more minke whaling.

Ironically, a report was produced last year by Iceland’s Institute of Economic Studies which concluded that whaling in Iceland would be profitable. That report was, however, subject to heavy criticism for the assumptions made.

 

Promised report on Iceland’s whaling activities full of holes

Last summer, Iceland’s PM Katrin Jakobsdottir promised that a review would be done of the economic, social and environmental ramifications of whaling before any decision would be made about whether to grant Kristjan Loftsson and his whaling company Hvalur permission to hunt fin whales for the next five years or so.

The University of Iceland’s Institute of Economics has now produced what presumably is the report (in Icelandic) that Jakobsdottir had promised last year. It doesn’t sound promising for those hoping that 2018 would be the last year that Iceland kills whales. It even says that it might be worthwhile to hunt other species of whales! Ye gods!

It also has a dig at whale-watching companies and says they need to be regulated to ensure that they don’t affect the behaviour of whales and deter them from feeding and such like. They also say that whaling doesn’t seem to have deterred tourists from visiting Iceland, which seems to be one of their main concerns.

Like the first report the Institute composed, there is substantial information about the effect of whales on fishing stocks, based on papers that I have already written about – but nothing on how whale faeces can lead to increased fish stocks.

They also mention minke whaling, but put the low number of minke whales killed in 2017 and 2018 (17 and 6 respectively) to bad weather conditions. That’s not true – well, not for 2018 anyway, as minke whaling stopped soon after they started, as the whalers said they weren’t sure whether it would be economically worthwhile to hunt minke whales. The extension of the protected area near Reykjavik was making life difficult for the minke whalers. In theory, they can hunt over 250 minkes per year.

Granted, the authors say that fin whaling wasn’t profitable between and including 2014 and 2017, much of the proceeds going on wages and transport to Japan.

One would presume that whaling would be inadvisable, but apparently not – according to them.

I suspect there will be ramifications from this – watch this space.

Update: It appears that no one likes this report apart from Kristjan Loftsson and (perhaps) the Fisheries Minister, Kristjan Thor Juliusson. It has been torn to pieces left, right and centre. I think a new report should be done by the environmental consultancy Environice – clearly these economists know nothing about ecology.

Update: Kristjan Thor Juliusson is being cautious, see here. He says that Iceland’s leading scientists say it’s too hard to say for sure what the ecological effect of killing whales will be on fish populations.

Commercial whaling in Japan may affect Iceland’s whaling activities

Japan has just announced that it will leave the International Whaling Committee on 30 June 2019 and resume commercial whaling the following day in Japanese territorial waters.

This is surprising in light of the diminishing consumption of whale meat in Japan. Consumption is down to approx. 5,000 tonnes a year, down from 200,000 tonnes in the 1960s. The majority of the Japanese never or rarely eat whale meat.

The Japanese authorities have also said that they will no longer pursue whaling in the Antarctic or other southern climes, which is of course a good thing.

The Japanese decision could have an effect on whether the Icelandic government allows fin whaling to continue next year. The five-year licence to Kristjan Loftsson and his company Hvalur ran out last September and the Icelandic government has said it will commission a study into whether whaling is viable on commercial, environmental and social aspects of whaling before deciding whether to grant Loftsson a licence once more.

Japan’s decision to resume commercial whaling must surely have an effect on the commercial viability of Loftsson’s whaling as he sends all the Icelandic whale meat to Japan, via a roundabout route. If Japan is catching its own whales (which few of the Japanese will eat), it’s unlikely that they will want whale meat from Iceland as well. This might also factor into the Icelandic government’s report, as it makes no sense for Iceland to suffer the political wrath of anti-whaling countries if a market cannot be found for the meat.

In 2017, the Japanese authorities discarded Icelandic whale meat because their chemical analyses revealed that it was not fit for human consumption. Loftsson blamed the technology used, and hopes it will work out better this year. But whether it will or not is unknown – and Loftsson is unlikely to publicize a refusal by the Japanese to accept the meat.

It turns out that I’m not the only one who thinks that Japan’s decision will make it harder to sell whale meat from Iceland, as Arni Finnsson from the Iceland Nature Conservation Association has just been reported (in Icelandic) as saying something very similar.

Update: I contacted Nanami Kurasawa from the Japanese group IKAN to try and find out more about the proposed Japanese commercial whaling, Among other things, she said that the sellers of whale meat would probably NOT be opposed to more meat from Iceland as the stopping “research whaling” in the Antarctic and Southern Hemisphere would mean that Japan would have to give up 333 minke whales from the Antarctica, 134 sei whales and 43 minke whales from the North West Pacific. They are worried about a reduction in distribution.

Details of their commercial whaling are till to be announced. She also said that the Japanese government had relaxed rules on chemical analysis – which Loftsson is probably pleased about.

Anyone want an article on this issue?