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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCommercial whaling may be over in Iceland
From https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/commercial-whaling-may-be-over-iceland/
Citing the pandemic, whale watching, and a lack of exports, one of the three largest whaling countries may be calling it quits.
3 MINUTE READ
BY KIERAN MULVANEY
PUBLISHED MAY 1, 2020
AS PUBLIC OPINION changes and consumption of whale meat declines, commercial whaling may be one step closer to a permanent end in Iceland and possibly the world. For the second year in a row, Iceland, one of three remaining whaling nations, will not hunt any whales.
Iceland already harvested the lowest number of whales among the whaling holdouts, which include Japan and Norway. Since resuming whaling in 2003 after a 14-year pause, the island nation has killed 1,505 whales. Recent announcements by the countrys two whaling companies suggest that the annual hunt may be coming to an end.
Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, managing director of the minke whaling company IP-Utgerd, told AFP on April 24, Im never going to hunt whales again, Im stopping for good.
On the same day, Kristján Loftsson, CEO of Hvalur, told the Icelandic newspaper Morgunbladid that his ships would not be setting out to sea this summer.
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There is almost nothing that comes from whaling that can't be suitably replaced from another source.
And the Japanese model of harvesting only whale species that aren't at risk is sustainable until it isn't. That, of course, can happen in a relative blink of an eye.
It's time for everyone to abandon this hunt.
zed nada
(60 posts)...in an otherwise bleak outlook as we head into summer.. whaling is significant of a world superintended by those who disrespect other life forms and who destroy the environment for advantage. And BTW is the Hamberder Man following through on his intention to sell public land to fossil fuel industry during a pandemic? So he blunders and distracts us turning environmental wreckage into profit.....
Pandemics will come more often and with growing intensities if we continue on this course. But I am very happy to know about the whales. It might in better times make my summer, though that is up in the air as it is for everyone.