Icelandic Company Hvalur has resumed the hunting and thrashing of endangered fin whales , mostly because there is no way to impose the current ban on the hunt of these wonderful creature . An international moratorium was pass on in 2006 to economise this species , but Japan and Iceland have both decided that it does n’t apply to them .
The first hunt of the season was a 20 - meter ( 66 - foot ) fin whale . To kill it they used a grenade harpoon . The harpoon has an explosive case shot that explode when the harpoon is approximately half a meter ( 1.6 feet ) into the poor animal . Fin hulk are the second largest animal in the human beings , and 238 of these whales are wait to be killed during this season .
“ Fin giant are highly migrant , endangered and protect by a number of international treaties , ” say Susan Millward , film director of Marine Programs for the Animal Welfare Institute ( AWI ) , in a jam release . “ The fin giant cruelly targeted by Icelandic grenade harpoon could be the same animal seen by tourists in spot such as Ireland and the Azores . This mass murder occur at the disbursal of Iceland ’s own whale watch industry and also threatens the support of people thousands of miles away . ”
The economic argument is the one that has been arrive more coverage recently when it comes to the hunt of endangered specie . Ecotourism is worth a lot more to the thriftiness of a country than killing off whale or sharks . It is not surprising that Hvalur , allot to the NGO Environmental Investigation Agency , has not made a lucre for awhile .
Whaling has lose support in Iceland , but the governing has not taken any steps to ban this practice . Icelandic hoi polloi do n’t really feed whale , so what ’s trace by Hvalur is instead exported to Japan to be sell for food and “ medical ” supplements . The exportation contravenes the prohibition on external trade in whale center by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora ( CITES ) .
“ It is abysmal in this daytime and age that a country so well known for its nature touristry is defile its image by allowing commercial-grade whaling to continue in the face of grow domestic and international resistance , ” Clare Perry , sea campaigns loss leader for the Environmental Investigation Agency , stated . “ We are urging the Icelandic Government to recognise that this unneeded and unsustainable industry brings no real benefits to Iceland ’s economy and to defy further whaling quota . ”
Thelatest reportshows that 34 percent of Icelandic people support whaling , 34 percentage are against , and the rest are neither for nor against .
