Hot on the heels of Japan's recently-reported decision to leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the government of Iceland has voted to extend its "permission" for its whaling industry to keep killing baleen whales for another five years.
Iceland, which is still a member of IWC and does not see the need to leave the organization regardless of its policy on whaling, has sanctioned the killing of a maximum of 2,130 minke and fin whales over five years. Many, if not most, Icelanders seem to be in favour of continuing the island nation's whaling heritage, despite the country's progressive views on most other matters. The Icelandic business community, on the other hand, are less gung ho on the idea.
A growing number of Icelandic businessmen and politicians are counselling against continued whale hunting, not out of any moral scruples, but because it sees the country's tourism sector suffering as a result. International tourism is a mainstay of Iceland's economy, by far its most important export, whereas its whale industry is tiny and is having increasing problems selling its products internationally. As the Icelandic Travel Industry Association pithily points out, "Their market for whale meat is Japan, Norway and the Republic of Palau. Our market is the entire globe."
Iceland resumed commercial whale hunting in 2006, after the IWC blanket ban of 1986 - putting itself in a very small club of whaling mavericks, along with Japan and Norway - although it rarely kills its full quota of whales, mainly because it just can't sell them. It seems to be mainly a matter of national pride and independence, rather than a hard-nosed commercial decision. But maybe the tide is starting to turn back again.
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