By AFP - Agence France Presse
Iceland allows whaling until 2029
Iceland, one of three countries that still allow whaling, on Thursday granted licenses to two whaling companies for the next five years, until 2029, the outgoing government announced.
The decision was denounced by animal rights activists and environmental groups, who criticized the fact that it was taken by an interim government.
The licenses allow for the annual capture of 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales during each year's whaling season, which runs from mid-June to September, said the government, which lost Saturday's elections.
Fin whales are listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Whaling licenses are normally granted for five-year periods, but the last ones expired in 2023. The only whaling ship still in operation, the Hvalur, had been applying for and receiving renewals of its license every year.
Thursday's decision was criticized in a joint statement by Iceland's environmental association and its youth wing.
“Democracy is not respected, and the issuing of licenses violates the interests of the climate, nature, and animal welfare,” they said.
The charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation also denounced the permits.
We are outraged by the decision,” they said in a statement, in which they also argued that it was ‘highly unethical’ for an interim government to make such a decision.
The Captain Paul Watson Foundation took a similar view, criticizing what it called a “shocking abuse of power.”
The foundation's founder, Paul Watson, is currently being held by the Greenlandic authorities after being arrested in July in Nuuk, the capital of the Danish autonomous territory.
He was arrested based on a 2012 Japanese arrest warrant, which accuses him of damaging a whaling ship in Antarctica in 2010 and injuring a whaler.
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Last year, Iceland suspended whaling for two months after an inquiry commissioned by the government concluded that the methods used did not comply with animal welfare laws.
Monitoring by the government's veterinary agency showed that the hunters' explosive harpoons were causing prolonged agony to the whales, with the hunt lasting up to five hours after they had been harpooned.
The shortened 2023 season, which lasted just three weeks, ended with 24 fin whales killed. The quota was for a total of 209 whales.
Another company hung up its harpoons for good in 2020, saying that whaling was no longer profitable.
Iceland, Norway, and Japan are the only three countries that allow commercial whaling.
They face strong opposition from animal rights activists.
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