“Don’t buy from Icelandic companies tied to whaling”
Icelandic whalers cutting meat from a 35-tonne fin whale. Photo: AFP
The campaign against commercial whaling operations in Iceland is not over despite recent news of a halt in fin whale hunting, says the Don’t Buy from Icelandic Whalers coalition.
Excessive bureaucracy in the Japanese markets has forced Hvalur, the only Icelandic companies engaged in hunting fin whales, to throw in the towel in 2016, with no catches of fin whales planned.
“[We] will continue to monitor the situation, as whaling has stopped temporarily in the past (also attributed to factors in Japan), only to resume,” read a short announcement on Don’t Buy from Icelandic Whalers website.
The website quotes 1,200 as the number of whales hunted by Iceland since 2006, specifically mentioning the 155 “endangered” fin whales killed last year.
While fin whales are classified as an endangered species by the IUCN, they are reportedly not endangered in the North Atlantic.
