Icelandic government scraps no-whaling zone
The new Icelandic government has issued a press release announcing that the previous government’s expansion of the whale sanctuary in Faxafloi Bay is to be scrapped, denouncing it as “unscientific” and “not based on objective grounds.” WDC greets this news with dismay as, although smaller than hoped for, the extended ‘no-whaling zone’ had been welcomed by conservationists and the local whale watch industry becasue it offered greater protection to minke whales in the area.
All that remains now is the original, reduced ‘no-whaling zone’. Iceland’s minke whalers had bitterly opposed the expansion of the whale sanctuary claiming that approximately 80% of their previous hunts had taken place in that area.
