In Iceland we have discovered an unprecedented amount of the whale meat from the recent hunt has not been used. Even whaling captain Sigurður Njálsson has said the meat is unfit for domestic consumption. 200 tonnes of the meat is in storage with a further 179 tonnes of entrails buried at a landfill site. But despite demand for whale meat plummeting, Japan and Iceland continue to hunt whales.
Dumping site for 179 tonnes of whale entrails in Iceland.
An old whaling station at Hvalfjörður in Iceland.
An old whaling station at Hvalfjörður in Iceland.
Archive photo: Hvalfjörður whaling station in Iceland. Seagulls feeding on the carcass of a fin whale.
An icy landfill site has been used to dump a vast proportion of
the finwhale remains. Underneath the snowy floor around 179 tonnes
of bonesand entrails have been left to rot. Around 200 tonnes of
meat andblubber - a vast proportion of the total yield - are
sitting elsewherein storage waiting to be tested for chemical
contamination.
"Icelandclaims their commercial whaling is sustainable - but how
can theyjustify it when they are hunting endangered species,
without domesticdemand, and an over-supply of whale products in
Japan?" said GreenpeaceNordic Oceans campaigner, Frode Pleym. "Both
Iceland and Japan continueto whale in the face of domestic and
international opposition, eventhough there is no scientific,
economic or environmental justificationfor it," added Pleym.
Destination: Japan
TheIcelandic meat and blubber in storage is intended for export
to Japan,despite the fact that Japan already has 4962 tonnes of
whale meatstockpiled (as of October 2006) according to the Japanese
Ministry ofAgriculture, Foresty and Fisheries.
Last year, 5500 tonsofwhale meat was supplied to the Japanese
market. This includes whalemeatwhich does not get eaten and is
simply thrown away because it didn'tsell. Even if we generously
assume all of the meat was in fact eaten,that is only about 46gof
whale meat per person , as opposed to 5.6kg ofbeef, 12.1kg of pork,
and 10.5kg of chicken.
"It is no surprise that there are massive stockpiles of whale
meat, when a recent
surveyshows that 95 pecent of Japanese people never or have
rarely eatenwhale meat. It is time for all governments to make a
commitment to thewhales and not an outdated, unwanted and pointless
industry," saidGreenpeace Japan's campaign director, Junichi
Sato.
Click the play button above to viewrecent footage from Iceland
including interviews with the whaling shipcaptain and Greenpeace
oceans campaigner Frode Pleym at the landfillsite.
Thanks to Stod 2 - Icelandic television
for footage of whaling captain.
No scientific, economic, or environmental justification
Itseems that there is an awful lot of whale meat sitting in
storage orburied in landfill, begging the question as to how these
hunts canpossibly be justified. Despite this, the Japanese
FisheriesAgency whaling fleet is currentlypreparing to hunt 10
endangered fin whales and 935 minke whales in theSouthern Ocean
Whale Sanctuary.
On Thursday the crew of theGreenpeace ship Esperanza will sail
to the Southern Ocean, in order toput themselves between the
harpoons and the whales.
Take Action!
Create your own anti-whaling campaign at the brand new whales.greenpeace.org
Behind the scenes
Our campaigners blog from on the ground in Iceland