Icelandic whaling company Hvalur in June will get back into the hunt for fin whales after a two year suspension. The company stopped fin whaling when the Japanese stopped taking the catch because of new standards to measure levels of chemical pollutant PCB in whale meat.
"We are going to resume commercial whaling because the Japanese bureaucracy seems to have loosened up and the Japanese authorities have listened to us," Hvalur chief executive Kristjan Loftsson told AFP.
In addition, Hvalur said it plans to collaborate with researchers from the University of Iceland to develop medicinal products made of whale meat aimed at combatting iron deficiency—a condition that affects almost 30 percent of the global population, or two billion people, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Iceland's whaling season opens on June 10.
Whalers this year have a quota of 161 fin whales, compared to 150 in 2017. In addition, Hvalur is entitled to use 20 percent of its unused quota from last year, which means it will be allowed to hunt 30 additional fin whales.
In 2015, during the last hunt, Hvalur killed a record 155 fin whales.
Last year the Rekjavik Grapevine reported one potentially hopeful sign for the hunted whales.
Hunters in Faxaflói Bay, which surrounds ReykjavÃk, had trouble finding minke whales while whale watching companies had no such difficulty. "It bears mentioning that while both whale hunters and whale watchers operate in Faxaflói Bay, they tend to do so in separate areas of the water. As such, it may be possible that the whales are learning to avoid hunting areas of the bay and stay only in places where humans will merely observe and marvel at them, rather than harpoon them."
"We are going to resume commercial whaling because the Japanese bureaucracy seems to have loosened up and the Japanese authorities have listened to us," Hvalur chief executive Kristjan Loftsson told AFP.
In addition, Hvalur said it plans to collaborate with researchers from the University of Iceland to develop medicinal products made of whale meat aimed at combatting iron deficiency—a condition that affects almost 30 percent of the global population, or two billion people, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Iceland's whaling season opens on June 10.
Whalers this year have a quota of 161 fin whales, compared to 150 in 2017. In addition, Hvalur is entitled to use 20 percent of its unused quota from last year, which means it will be allowed to hunt 30 additional fin whales.
In 2015, during the last hunt, Hvalur killed a record 155 fin whales.
Last year the Rekjavik Grapevine reported one potentially hopeful sign for the hunted whales.
Hunters in Faxaflói Bay, which surrounds ReykjavÃk, had trouble finding minke whales while whale watching companies had no such difficulty. "It bears mentioning that while both whale hunters and whale watchers operate in Faxaflói Bay, they tend to do so in separate areas of the water. As such, it may be possible that the whales are learning to avoid hunting areas of the bay and stay only in places where humans will merely observe and marvel at them, rather than harpoon them."
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