The Green Rocket

A big story from last week–and an absolutely abhorrent one in my eyes–was Iceland’s Fisheries Minister Einar Gudfinnsson decision to increase Iceland’s annual quota to 100 minke whales and 150 fin whales; all in an effort to resolve Iceland’s financial situation. This choice comes just before the Icelandic government resigned, following widespread protests over its handling of the financial crisis.

It’s no surprise that this action would cause an uproar around the world. Greenpeace International Whales Campaign coordinator Sara Holden had the following to say:

The outgoing Icelandic government’s whaling quota increase is a shameless stunt that has nothing to do with use of natural resources, and everything to do with politics. Greenpeace joins the Icelandic tourism industry in urging that the new interim government reverses the quota increase and instead focuses on real solutions that promote the beauty of Iceland’s environment – such as tourism and whale watching.

Greenpeace International Executive Director Gerd Leipold has now written to members of Iceland’s new interim government with some facts concerning an alternative way of dealing with this misguided action. It seems that if the new government can focus on the tourism potential of their whale population, the financial crisis has a better (more reasonable) way of being solved.

Facts Against the Whaling Market:

• The minke meat imported from Norway, which accompanied the exported Icelandic fin whale meat, as of January 2009 has still not cleared customs. Part of the fin whale shipment remains unsold, seven months after it was air-freighted to Japan.
• Most whales caught by Japan in the North Pacific and all whales caught in the Antarctic are processed on board one factory ship, the Nisshin Maru. The company which operates the factory ship is in charge of marketing all whale meat from these operations and so controls the market. This company will not welcome competition from Iceland or Norway given that the market is already saturated and produce is hard to sell. The whaling company’s first priority is to sell its own product – it is clearly unable to do so, as the backlog and the scaling back of this year’s catch demonstrate.

Facts forWhale Watching Tourism:

• Even a small increase in tourists going to Iceland for whale watching will create and secure more jobs and more money than whaling. Last year about 115,000 people went whale watching in Iceland. Over 20 per cent of these stated whale watching as an important reason for coming to Iceland, spending millions of US dollars in revenue in the process. A further 115,000 people have signed a pledge stating that they will consider visiting Iceland if Iceland stops whaling.
• Tourism in general and whale watching in particular promote the beauty of Iceland’s environment, and are worth far more to the Icelandic economy than whaling is or ever can be. The image of Iceland as an industrial whaling nation, in the business of catching whales and shipping them around the world for consumption as luxury goods, will certainly not help promote tourism or Iceland’s image internationally.

Note: This is a blog post, not an article, and therefore is definitely one-sided–as can be gleamed from the title of this post.

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• Nisshin Maru Takes 551 Whales
• Will Seal Hunting Be a Thing of the Past?