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Iceland not going to play by the rules

Ellingsen factory, biggest whale meat and blubber storage in Norway. Svolvaer, Skrona, Norway. Enlarge Image

Norway exports toxic whale blubber to Iceland

This deadly delicacy is not only being exported in spite of an international ban on the trade of whale products, the contaminated blubber poses a serious health risk to the Icelandic people. But international and neighbourly responsibility are not at the forefront of the whalers minds, the gold rush that will follow is what preoccupies them.

Results of Japan's scientific whale research. Enlarge Image

Bad cafeteria food takes on new meaning in Japan

The results of Japan’s latest whaling “research” expedition go on sale this week. To combat the dwindling appetite for whale meat among Japanese people, the government is cutting prices and giving a few hundred tonnes of whale meat for school lunches so children can “understand how good it is”.

The Nisshin Maru, one of the Japanese catcher vessels, transferring a Minke whale to the factory ship in the Southern ocean. Enlarge Image

Whaling fleets return with biggest catch in 15 years

The Japanese and Norwegian whaling fleets have returned from their summer hunt in the north bringing their total catch this year to 1268 whales, more than any year since the commercial whaling ban was widely taken up. But there is also good news. The endangered status of three whale species has been officially recognised.

A harpooned whale can take hours to die Enlarge Image

Stop whaling

The harpoons are ready, and the whaling season has begun. The Norwegian government plans to take 670 minke whales in the only openly-declared commercial whale hunt in the world, while the Japanese government aim to kill 210 minke, Bryde's, sei and sperm whales in the north-western Pacific in a so called "Scientific" whaling programme. Iceland, the world's third whaling nation, has not yet made a decision on this year's take or if their "scientific" research programme will continue.

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