Iceland Increases Its Hunting Quota for Endangered Fin Whales

The North-Atlantic nation recently announced that it would again expand its self-assigned yearly quota of fin whales to approximately 150 over the next five years, even tough authorities in the country are perfectly aware of the fact that the culling of whales is expressly prohibited in international treaties. The move was triggered by the fact that Iceland and Japan recently signed a whale meat import-export deal, with the Atlantic nation supplying the meat, and the Asian country purchasing it.

Japan came to these desperate measures following years in which its whale culling in Antarctic waters was boycotted or sabotaged by activists from Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, as well as by Australian military patrol vessels. Following growing international pressure on them, the Japanese are now considering the idea of moving their operations to the northern part of the Pacific, as exposed by a leaked document from the latest International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting.

If that plan fails, then the Asian nation will have nowhere else to turn to for its prized whale meat except to other countries that blatantly disregard the 1982 UN Charter prohibiting worldwide whaling. Last year, Iceland killed nine highly-endangered fin whales in its waters, but announced that it would seek to kill 150 more each year from now. Needless to say, this sparked extreme reactions from environmental groups, with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society threatening to move its operations from the Antarctic to the Atlantic, and vowing to ram and sink any whaling ships it comes across.

Over the past years, in the Antarctic, the Japanese have mostly been hunting for Minke whales, which have a lower threat level than their finned counterparts. So it would stand to reason that they would move their operations to where they are needed most. If they manage to get their whole fleet back on track, then Sea Shepherd could maybe patrol both areas with a vessel, while keeping one in reserve.

“We’re going to say to people around the world to not buy Icelandic vodka, sweaters, and fish, to not go as tourists to Iceland and to not use Iceland as a refueling station for private jets,” says Paul Watson, the leader of Sea Shepherd, and the captain of its flagship, the Steve Irwin. A full boycott of Icelandic products is in order, because the state's economy, in its current state, is unable to take such a devastating blow.