Iceland permits hunt for endangered whales
I am so tired. Not because of the long day or the sort of late hour, but because the Icelandic fisheries ministry issued a permit to hunt 39 whales for commercial purposes. It is. Just. So. Frustrating. Why do they do this? You tell me, there is not even a market for it!
I was in Iceland a couple of years ago, where the old whaling ships, the Hvalur fleet, lies in the port of Reykjavik as rusty relics of old times. Across the jetty was a whale watching boat. It was just so obvious: whaling is something of the past! And still here we are… boy was I stupid.
Andrew posted the story here
And hey: sign the pledge will you please? We're never giving up, but for now I'll just go home and… mope.
Archive photo: Hvalfjörður whaling station in Iceland. Seagulls feeding on the carcass of a fin whale. © Greenpeace / Reeve
Iceland has granted a commercial license to hunt 39 whales - nine of which are endangered fin whales. There's no economic reason behind this - a recent poll by IFAW shows that just 1.1 % of Icelanders eat whale meat once a week or more, while 82.4% of 16 to 24-year-olds never eat whale meat. Read more about the IFAW poll »
The Pledge:
“I would seriously consider taking a vacation in Iceland rather than somewhere else if the Government of Iceland stopped whaling. I would be willing to receive an email about the options available for Icelandic tourism, an email that would be sent to me if the Government of Iceland ends its whaling program.” Take the pledge: Tell the Icelandic government that you opposewhaling
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Comments
Tell me! Do you like the life in the ocean?
DO you know what happens if the humans protect a animal in the top of the food chain?
I'ill tell you.. You people dont seem to know anythink about this!!
If we humas dont hunt the whale then we do a big MESS in the nature.
Listen, all the whales eat about 500 million tons a year! while all the humans in the world allow them self to fish about 100 million ton a year!!!! that is five times less.
And you are not doing the mother natior a favior by ban us to hunt whails. DO you know what you're doing with this????
You destroying it endly:'(
Thats realy sad, come on I life in Iceland I life in Westmann Island an I have seen whales many times, and i love it:D those animals are great i know. But thay eat to much, killing whails is not about the money!!! NO its for the nature, the cod is now dieing out, we dont allow us to fish much and every ear less and less and less. We life on cod, and the minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) eats about 500 thousund tons a year so much much more than we allow us to fish!
And now the sadest part, you Greenpeace members thank that you are so good to the animals. But with bannig the whaling there is now not enough food for the puffing and his offsprings do not get food anymore! We get the young puffing flying to the town on Heimaey in Westmann Island but the last 3 years there were like none! The kids safe them and free them back to sea. But not anymore.
Look at the Puffin: http://www.heimaslod.is/?title=Lundi
Look at Lundapysjur (the young puffin): http://www.heimaslod.is/?title=Mynd:IMG_4288.jpg
Shame on you Greenpeace, just destroying the nature :(
And dont think I dont know anytink about this because I know everythink about this.
Whales like fin whale, eat food from the fishes, and thats the reason why the puffin is starfing the small fish (Ammodytes tobianus) is the puffins food and Ammodytes tobianus is now dieing out because they dont get food. Whales eat to much though we all like them!
Keep them down with out killing them off. Let the nations of this world hunt the whales before it all goes down to mess and the fish has been killed off!!
Sheep has brain and has lung like we do, like the whale do. We are all mammals so thats no reason to stop hunting or eat animals we simply have to life. Whale is a bad but lovely animal that eats many many animals a day!!! but the poor sheep just lifes on a gras.
So dont behave like this, we are responebol for the nature and the whales are simply to many!! killing 39 whales is just a joke, we need to hunt around 500 a year. I would never want to kill them OFF!!!! NEVER i love the whales but I also love the puffin that is beeing killed of because the whales are too many.
Kveðja
Haraldur.
Posted by: Haraldur | October 20, 2006 10:57 PM
Haraldur - don't you think it's just a little too convenient to blame whales for the loss of the cod... rather than humans? It's no so long ago that the "cod wars" happened off the coast of Iceland. I don't recall whales being involved in that situation - just humans fighting over cod.
Don't forget, just like whales, humans eat animals every day too! We domesticate sheep, and since domestication, we have cleared land to graze our sheep.
Whales are not domesticated, they're not farmed, they are wild animals. It's not a fair comparison at all.
As for the puffin - do you have any *real* evidence to suggest that whales are taking food away from puffins? There are other factors - including climatic ones - that can cause decline in bird populations. There was a recent wave of seabird deaths off the coast of Ireland too. You can read about it here.
As for Ammodytes tobianus - take a look here for the recent ICES report on sandeels. ICES don't seem to be blaming whales.
I suggest you take a look at this article on cod that I posted yesterday.
Posted by: dave | October 21, 2006 1:18 PM
Why not just let them kill a sustainable number of whales, and if fish stocks still don't recover, then you can have bragging rights.
And then finally everyone will be able to focus on overfishing problems.
Posted by: david@tokyo | October 23, 2006 12:01 PM
oi im back from the dea dyeah yeah its me im back and im out to kill all the people who mess up this world like people who kill whales! the little....!!!!! ill beat them up if i see them great site !
Posted by: bob marly | November 27, 2006 10:22 AM
i agreee!!! i love whales i dont want them 2 get hurt
Posted by: ******* | June 7, 2007 1:06 PM
i agree so much i dont want the animals to get hurt ecspeciall whales
Posted by: *!*!*!*!*!*!*!* | November 23, 2007 7:56 AM