Iceland to stop whaling

Result! One country down, two to go. Norway and Japan are the only two countries left flying in the face of world opinion, after Iceland's fisheries minister, Einar K. Guofinnsson was quoted by Reuters as saying

"The whaling industry, like any other industry, has to obey the market. If there is no profitability there is no foundation for resuming with the killing of whales,"

Guofinnsson said he won't issue a new quota until the "market conditions for whale meat improve" and permission to export whale products to Japan is secured. Presumably, the 5,000 tonnes of whalemeat currently sitting in Japan's coldrooms will need to get sold first.

There's hardly any market for whalemeat in Iceland, and Japan is unwilling to purchase North Atlantic whale meat because of fears of contamination, so this year's hunt has been a disaster. Iceland's whalers have only manage to kill 7 minkes and 7 fin whales. They didn't make public the results of contamination testing on the whale meat, and well, no one seems interested in buying their product!

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Iceland stops whale-hunting quotas after low demand »

be the holy. great news.