Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 7 • Number 15 • 7th September 2007

Iceland Finds No Market for Whale Meat

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Fisheries Minister Einar Guofinnsson recently announced that he would refrain from issuing a new quota for commercial whaling until the market for whale products improved. The old quota — issued in October last year for 30 minke whales and 9 fin whales in defiance of an international whaling moratorium that has been in place for two decades (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 20 October 2006, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/06-10-20/inbrief.htm) — expired on 31 August.

Over the past year, Icelandic whalers killed 7 minke and 7 fin whales, both of which are listed as endangered species. Iceland, along with Japan and Norway, also maintains a programme of whaling on “scientific” grounds. However, demand for whale meat has decreased, and Iceland had trouble exporting the whale meat to Japan due to its high concentration of toxic chemicals.

Meanwhile, anti-whaling nations and animal rights groups have noted that while commercial whaling yields very little profit, Iceland’s whale-watching industry accumulates over US$20 million in revenues per annum.

The last meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in June this year rejected requests from pro-whaling nations to challenge the IWC’s international ban on commercial whaling (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 22 June 2007, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/07-06-22/inbrief.htm#2).

“Iceland Puts Down Its Whaling Harpoons for a Year,” ENS, 27 August 2007; “New Zealand welcomes Iceland’s decision to not issue new whaling quotas this year,” INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, 27 August 2007.