Good News for Minke and Fin whales as Iceland cancels its annual hunt for the second year in a row.
Iceland’s two commercial whale hunting companies IP-Utgerd, and Hvalur have cited Covid 19 and an extension to the no-fishing coastal zone as the main reasons for abandoning the hunt.
Coronavirus social distancing regulations will make processing the whale meat almost impossible.
Hvalur chief executive Kristjan Loftsson said:
“whaling station workers need to work very closely together and would all need to quarantine if any tested positive for Covid-19.”
Loftsson added:
“The decision was also due to stiff competition with Japan, the main market for whale meat consumption and where commercial whaling resumed in 2019. Food safety requirements for imported meat were more stringent than for local products, rendering Icelandic exports more difficult.”
Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson the managing director of IP-Utgerd said of the situation
“It is no longer financially viable to hunt for whales in Icelandic waters. The hunt had become too expensive after a no-fishing coastal zone was extended, requiring whalers to go even further offshore. ‘I'm never going to hunt whales again, I'm stopping for good,'
While this will be music to the ears of many people, Norway and Japan persist in ignoring the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) 1986 moratorium and continue to hunt whales in their coastal waters.
Photo Credit: Pintrest
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