Iceland shunned over whale hunting

A new programme of commercial whaling in Iceland has angered Iceland's neighbours and looks set to damage its tourist industry.

Abstract

A new programme of commercial whaling has angered Iceland's neighbours and looks set to damage its tourist industry. Nigel Williams reports. A new programme of commercial whaling has angered Iceland's neighbours and looks set to damage its tourist industry. Nigel Williams reports. Iceland's start-up of commercial whaling this summer appears to be having a dramatic effect on the country's booming ecotourism and whale-watching holidays. One major British tour operator has reported a 25 per cent drop in bookings since the country resumed whaling last month. Iceland's decision to resume commercial whaling comes at the most sensitive time for international whaling in a generation and threatens to set back marine conservation many years. Earlier this year, led by Japan and Norway, 30 small and poor developing countries with no real interest in whaling gained control on the International Whaling Commission, the body that regulates worldwide whaling. Spurred by Iceland, it is possible that Norway and Japan will now leave the IWC and take a number of small countries with them. At the very least, the pro-whaling nations now hold the majority of votes, and the IWC may be slowly driven to abandon its conservation and welfare mandate. At the beginning of this month, Alp Mehmet, the British ambassador to Iceland, led a delegation of 25 ambassadors from anti-whaling nations to deliver a “strongly worded” letter to the country's foreign affairs ministry. The letter urged an immediate end to the whaling saying: “We repeat our countries' opposition to this operation and urge the government of Iceland to reconsider its position and reverse this unnecessary decision, and to abandon its current operations.” Ben Bradshaw, Britain's fisheries minister, said after the protest: “This united action shows the depth of feeling and concern not only in Britain but all over the world about this cruel and abhorrent activity. The protest leaves “Iceland in no doubt about the strength of feeling against its decision to sidestep an international agreement to stop the killing of whales. It has done great damage to its reputation and image.” Among the countries to sign the letter were the US, France, Germany, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina. The European Union also signed. Tourists have reacted angrily to Iceland's decision to hunt nine fin whales, classified as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and 30 minke whales. A spokesperson for the Iceland government in London said that seven of the nine fin whales permitted under the licence this year had been caught but that hunting was now suspended for the winter. A new licence will be needed to resume hunting from September 1, 2007 and the government would take full account of the effect on ecotourism before reaching a decision, he said. But Iceland's decision to restart commercial whaling is likely based on local public opinion which shows that 70–80 per cent of people support commercial whaling and the government claims that whaling is economically essential to the country. But there are growing critics of this view as all of Iceland's whaling is carried out by a single company based in Reykjavik who are subsidised by the government. But the boom in tourists visiting the island, many of which want to include whale-watching trips, has proved a sudden and dramatic economic boost. Tourist numbers in Iceland reached a record 400,000 this year, 89,000 of whom went whale watching. Clive Stacey, of Discover the World, one of the biggest operators of tours to Iceland, said that the company organised trips for 7,000 Britons this year, but that booking for next year had dropped by 25 per cent in the two weeks after Iceland began whaling. The company had expected bookings to increase by 50–100 per cent. “We've had a few people write to cancel and the level of interest in booking holidays in Iceland has dropped,” he said. “There has to be a reason for this. The most obvious is that people are reacting to the whaling. We are very concerned about what's going on.”