The troubled issue of hunting whales is again coming to a head as Iceland’s Minister of Fisheries has promised to make public on Tuesday her decision on whether or not to issue whaling licences for the coming five-year period.
The licence of Iceland’s only whaling company, Hvalur hf, expired at the end of last year and it applied for a renewal in January this year.
Whaling has been controversial both domestically and internationally since the hunt was resumed back in 2009. There has been pressure from NGOs to end the whale hunt, public opinion within Iceland is deeply divided, and there have been a number of clashes with the authorities as the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority has identified numerous shortcomings in Hvalur hf’s handling of the whale hunt in terms of the way animals are dispatched.
‘The findings of the committee are such that the methods employed to hunt large whales do not comply with the requirements of law 55/2013 relating to the welfare of animals,’ states a report from the Food and Veterinary Authority a few weeks ago. This follows a number of incidents in which harpooned whales had remained alive on the end of the hook for far longer than allowed by regulations, and a number of cows in calf have also been harpooned – all of which generates deeply negative publicity for a nation keen to flag up its green, progressive credentials.
At the same time, the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute’s advice is that the fin whale stock is able to support the culling of 160 animals annually.
The Minister of Food, Fisheries and Agriculture is from the Left-Green Alliance, one of the three parties forming the governing coalition – and allowing whaling is contrary to the party’s policies. The Left-Greens are also set for electoral wipeout at the next elections, its polling currently at a historic low point after two terms in goovernment with the country’s two right-wing parties.
Minister Bjarkey Olsen Gunnarsdóttir is reviewing the large volume of reports and opinions on whaling, and has stated that her decision will be made public on Tuesday. The question is whether pressure will be brought to bear within the government itself – as the whaling business has close links to the Independence Party in particular, one of the Left-Greens’ coalition partners in parliament. Or could the Minister stick with her own party’s policy and decline to further licence whaling?
Either way, it’s a decision that will trigger a tsunami of furious criticism.
Declining to re-licence would most likely spell the end of whaling in Iceland – although that’s not for certain. Hvalur hf’s owners maintained their antique whaling vessels through the long years of the hunt’s suspension until the post-financial crash administration – on its way out of government and leaving the incoming administration with a headache it could have done without – issued a licence to allow the hunt to resume.
Whichever way the Minister’s decision goes, the fur is going to fly in the aftermath of her call on this deeply divisive issue.
