MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Iceland resumes whaling after temporary ban

Killing whales would now be admissible, albeit in a more humane way, according to Iceland's government

The government of Iceland announced whaling was to resume effective Sept. 1 after banning the practice two months ago. The new measure sparked rage among environmentalists concerned about the endangered species. However, more effective hunting methods and equipment need to be used, the authorities said.

Iceland's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said that “whaling can resume,” after the previous decision in late June following a report which revealed that the killings were not in accordance with the national animal welfare law. Iceland‘s Food and Veterinary Authority claimed that the cetaceans died too slowly and suffered a long agony. The change in the hunting methods seeks to reduce irregularities and bring on an “improvement from the point of view of animal welfare” to make whales suffer less when they die.

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries said new regulations will include stricter requirements for hunting equipment and methods. The Food and Veterinary Authority and the Directorate of Fisheries will work together to supervise whale hunting, the ministry said.

Iceland, Norway, and Japan are the only three countries still allowing whales to be killed for meat consumption despite a waning demand. “Hardly anyone eats (whale meat) here in Iceland … People don’t want this, people don’t want the killing of these animals,” said Micah Garen, a climate campaigner and director of a documentary called “The Last Whaling Station.”

Humane Society International (HSI), an animal welfare advocacy group, condemned the move as a “devastating” rejection of an opportunity to “do the right thing.”

“There is simply no way to make harpooning whales at sea anything other than cruel and bloody, and no amount of modifications will change that,” said HSI Executive Director Ruud Tombrock.

“These new measures are useless and irrelevant,” said Luke McMillan, an anti-whaling campaigner with Whale and Dolphin Conservation. “There is no humane way to kill whales at sea, and they will continue to suffer,” he added.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a ban on commercial whaling in the 1980s due to dwindling stocks. Iceland left the IWC in 1992 but returned in 2002 with a reservation to the ban. It allowed commercial whaling to resume in 2006.