Minke Whale

Well now, for being a cold country, Iceland could be landing itself in the hot seat.

It has been reported, from various Whale and Dolphin Society sources, that both the Icelandic fin whaling season and the minke whaling season have come to a close last week.

Some 208 whales have been killed off, which is two more than they killed last year.

Of those 208 whales, 148 were fin whales, and 60 were minke whales. These whales are estimated to be put to good use by creating more than 1,900 tonnes of whale products. This estimate comes from the government of Iceland itself.

Even though the popularity of whale meat has dropped off substantially in both Japan and other European whaling nations, the fin whaling industry of Iceland has made a record catch, the biggest haul since 1985, and is leading people to ask the question “just what are they planning to do with all those whale products”?

The Hvalur fin whaling company is trying to get around the fact that there just isn’t any demand for whale meat locally, by trying to peddle their wares in Japan, and is also pushing some new kinds of whale products. They have even proposed using whale oil to fuel whaling vessels!

This leads one to ask themselves.. Why kill all those whales? If nobody is buying, it is such a waste… Sounds like sometime in the near future, Iceland putting all these whales on ice, might just land them in a heap of hot water..

Australia and New Zealand announced Thursday that they will carry out a six-week long non-lethal whale research expedition in the Antarctic early next year. Dubbing the expedition non-lethal is a direct challenge to Japan’s research program that kills up to 1,000 whales a year.

Iceland and Norway are the only two countries openly defying the IWC ban on commercial whaling; Japan is instead using a lope whole that allows for “lethal research”. Whale meat resulting from the Japanese research is sold for human consumption and many critics claim that this is the real motive behind the program.

In a joint statement, Australia and New Zealand announced their intentions to reform science management within the International Whaling Commission, which holds its annual meeting in Madeira, Portugal, next week, and end Japan’s “so-called scientific whaling.”

“This expedition and the ongoing research program will demonstrate to the world that we do not need to kill whales to study and understand them,” said Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

The expedition aims to increase our knowledge of population structures, abundance, trends, distribution, and the ecological role of whales in the Southern Ocean.

During the latest Japanese hunt, which ended in April, 679 minke whales and one fin whale was killed over a period of five months.