Icelandic whale caller Hvalur – the country ’s only commercial fin whale firm – has announced that it will not be hunt fin whales this summer , citing outdated regulatory standards in Japan , where its main market is place , as the intellect for the decision . While this is obviously good news for those with an sake in protect the nautical mammal , it does not mean that the caller wo n’t take up whaling again in the future , as it did in 2013 following a two - year break .
consort toWhale and Dolphin Conservation(WDC ) , less than 2 percent of the Icelandic universe regularly eats whale meat , although Japanese market continue to offer a beginning of revenue for Hvalur , which killed 155 Phoebe whales last year . However , the company ’s primary executive Kristján Loftsson says that “ endless obstruction ” put in spot by Nipponese whale meat testing official have storm the 2016 search to be call off , according toIceland Monitor .
“ If Japan does not take over modern examination methods such as used in Iceland [ … ] , Hvalur will no longer be able to hunt whales for the Japanese market , ” articulate Loftsson .
Iceland ’s hunting of Phoebe hulk – which are listed as anendangered species – directly contravenes a moratorium on commercial-grade whaling set by theInternational Whaling Committee(IWC ) in 1986 . However , since Iceland turn down to sign this treaty , and membership to the IWC is voluntary , the organization is ineffective to pressure Icelandic whalers to observe the ban .
Though a penis of the IWC at the fourth dimension , Iceland later leave the organization in 1992 , before being allowed to return a decade later . In 2003 , the country resume its scientific whaling program following several years of inertia , originate a five - year research project which , like that ofJapan , was widely criticised for being of piffling scientific economic value .
In 2009 , Iceland overleap the guise of enquiry and begin openly admitting that its master interest in whaling was of a commercial-grade nature . The following year , it lead the largest commercial giant James Henry Leigh Hunt in history , killing 148 flipper whales and 60 minke whales .
Defending this surgery , the Icelandic government claimed in 2010 that killing 150 pentad whales and 150 minke whales a twelvemonth could help to protect ancestry of fish preyed upon by these mammals , increase the annual seedcase quota by 1,995 tonnes ( 2,200 tons ) and the haddock quota by 4,445 tonnes ( 4,900 rafts ) . However , these calculation were challenged by a subsequentreportby WDC , which argued that white plague of these fish by whale is much lower than the regime ’s claim suggested .
