Iceland's whalers have belatedly been granted a quota of 40 minke whales to kill over the next few months but the government is clearly divided over the issue with Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir warning that resuming the whale hunt could damage Iceland's "long term interests".
Japan has announced it will not kill 50 humpback whales this winter after talks with the United States have increased fears that a political deal is imminent that will lift the 22 year ban on commercial whaling.
On October 4th, Campaign Whale Director Andy Ottaway and MEP Caroline Lucas met with Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas in Brussels, handing him a 110,000 hand-signed petition calling for the EU to do more to protect whales and stop commercial whaling.
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Members of the Makah tribe of the north-west USA illegally killed a grey whale on Saturday 8th September. Although commercial whaling is banned in the United States, the Makah tribe claim they have a cultural, and Treaty right with the US Government, to hunt whales after a lapse of over 70 years.
Campaign Whale has welcomed the announcement by Fisheries Minister Einar Guofinnsson that the Icelandic Government will not permit more whaling after the current quota expires on August 31.
Town councillors in Taiji, Japan, scene of countless cruel dolphin slaughters, have revealed that schoolchildren in the area have been served dolphin meat containing dangerous levels of mercury, prompting warnings of a potential public health disaster as the country attempts to boost consumption of cetacean meat.
On October 17 th Iceland announced its resumption of commercial whaling. They claim whales are a threat to fishstocks and must be culled. There is no scientific credibility to this argument. Human over-fishing is to blame for dwindling stocks and catches, and this in turn is a threat to whales and the entire ocean ecosystem.
Campaign Whale is leading a coalition of anti-whaling groups calling on fish retailers in the UK, EU and USA, to review their fish purchases of Icelandic seafood. The Icelandic Prime Minister has recently hinted that whaling could stop for ''economic'' and other reasons. With Icelandic elections due early in May it is vital that we keep up the pressure and demonstrate to Iceland that whales are worth far more alive than dead, and that whaling is bad for business.
In 2003, Iceland announced plans to kill 500 fin, sei and minke whales over two years for so-called ‘research’. In October 2006, Iceland announced the resumption of commercial whaling .
As of January 2007, Icelandic whalers have killed 7 endangered fin whales and a minke whale. They plan to kill a further 2 fin and 69 minkes this year, for profit. Iceland, like Norway, claim whales must be culled because they eat fish. This is nonsense. Human over-fishing is destroying fish stocks, not whales.
Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993 after switching to 'research' when the IWC ban on commercial whaling was introduced in 1986.
Norwegian whalers are aiming to kill 1,052 minke whales this year most of the animals killed will be the larger, and therefore more profitable, female minke whales, often pregnant.
The International Whaling Commission has called repeatedly on Norway to respect the whaling ban but every year the number of whales killed is increasing.
Norway claims whales must be culled as they are a threat to fishstocks. However, human over-fishing is to blame for dwindling stocks and this in turn is a threat to whales and the entire marine ecosystem.
By cynically exploiting a legal loophole in the whaling convention that permits scientific research on whales, Japan has slaughtered over 6,000 whales since commercial whaling was banned in 1986. The meat and other products obtained from this 'research' is sold as before.
The International Whaling Commision has passed many condemnatory resolutions against Japan's lethal research, including at this year's annual meeting in Anchorage.
A review by IWC scientists has concluded that Japan's 'scientific' whaling has not achieved its stated objectives and is not necessary for whale management.
This winter Japan aims to kill endangered humpback whales for 'research' for the first time.
Japan is now killing around 1,200 whales each year for its bogus research programmes in Antarctica and the north Pacific.
Japanese coastal fishermen kill around 20,000 dolphins, porpoises, pilot and beaked whales each year. However, since the IWC ban on whaling, one species, the Dall''s porpoise, has been the principle target of Japanese hunters.
The IWC''s Scientific Committee has repeatedly voiced concern that the Dall’s porpoise hunt is unsustainable. In 1990, the IWC passed a resolution calling on Japan to reduce the kill to at least pre-1986 levels, or between 8-10,000 per year. Although Japan introduced restrictions to reduce the kill, it quickly increased and remains to this day around double the recommendations made at that time. Approaching half a million Dalls porpoises have been slaughtered since commercial whaling was banned in 1986. This year a further 18,000 will be harpooned by Japanese fishermen as they bow-ride the hunting boats.
The very survival of a critically endangered whale population is in the hands of the oil giants Shell, and we need your help to save it.
The western Pacific gray whales cling to survival with only around 100 animals left. They breed, every summer, off the northwest tip of Sakhalin Island off Russia’s far East coast. Now, these whales face certain disaster if Royal Dutch Shell’s plans to drill for oil and gas in their breeding grounds get the necessary financial backing from the European Bank. Royal Dutch Shell’s Sakhalin II project is the largest integrated oil and gas project in the world, and it is seeking up to $300 million in public financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is currently finalising a Revised Management Scheme (RMS) for the resumption of commercial whaling. Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and the Netherlands are some of the countries backing the RMS and the resumption of commercial whaling. Many other countries may do the the same.
Campaign Whale believes the world''s surviving whale populations are under threat as never before from climate change, pollution, entanglement in fishing nets and other threats. We also believe that killing whales is both cruel and totally unnecessary in a modern world. Whales need protecting, not hunting. If you agree please help us save the whaling ban.
Over 25,000 whales have been slaughtered since a ban on commercial whaling was introduced in 1986. Norway, Iceland and Japan will kill over 2,000 whales this year between them by exploiting loopholes in the ban. Sadly, world goverrnments are not prepared to take any meaningful action that will stop this outrage and every year the whalers kill more whales.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC), the UN recognised management body for whaling, has failed to stop the killing and now a compromise deal may lift the ban altogether condemning many thousands more whales to a cruel death.
The Faroes cruel whale slaughter
Every year around 2,000 whales are driven ashore and cruelly slaughtered in the Faroe Islands, mid-way between the Shetland Islands and Iceland. For centuries the Faroe Islanders have hunted pilot whales, driving entire schools into killing bays, where they are speared or gaffed from boats, dragged ashore and butchered with knives. Although the Islands are a protectorate of Denmark, they have their own Government and regulations governing the pilot whale hunt or "grind" as it is known.