In what looks more like a case of misplaced patriotism than anything else, Iceland has stubbornly refused to stop whaling for decades, despite international condemnation. Little economic and even less cultural benefit comes from whaling, but still Iceland continues.
It’s exploiting the “scientific” loophole, although of course the hunt is actually for meat, much of which is sold to tourists and almost all the rest exported to Japan. Icelanders themselves eat very little whale meat – it’s not supposed to be very nice – and demand is rapidly dropping in Japan.
However, Iceland isn’t planning to stop whaling at all. It’s planning to kill more whales. The government recently announced that in 2014, it plans to kill six percent more minke whales – that’s 13 more individuals.
These little whales, the smallest of the baleen whales, face constant threats from pollution, entanglement in fishing gear and climate change. The last thing they need is more hunting.
Tell Iceland that national pride shouldn’t and doesn’t come from annihilating whales and to turn its attention elsewhere
We the undersigned ask that you not increase the minke whale catch in 2014. Whaling has no scientific value, and very little economic or cultural importance. Few people in Iceland like whale meat and even fewer eat it – the meat mostly goes to Japan, where it is stockpiled in freezers as demand in that country too is dropping rapidly.
The practice is also detrimental to the potentially far more lucrative whale watching industry, since whale loving tourists are understandably repelled by the fact that Iceland continues to slaughter the very whales they would pay to see.
Please reconsider your stance on whaling. It’s time it ended, but at the very least, do not increase the catch this or any other year.
Thank you for your attention.
