Iceland’s whaling slammed by new report and opinion poll
Today sees the release of a new report, Slayed in Iceland: The commercial hunting and international trade in endangered fin whales, jointly produced by WDC, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), and Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), on the eve of the 65th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Portorož, Slovenia.
The report exposes the sheer scale of the hunt and overseas trade, as well as the financial and logistical links between the whalers and some of Iceland’s largest companies and calls for the international community and vested commercial interests to take tough action to end Iceland’s ongoing slaughter of endangered fin whales.
It includes findings from a new poll commissioned by WDC and other leading anti-whaling organisations released yesterday which reveals overwhelming public opposition to Icelandic whaling. Nine out of ten people surveyed in the UK and Germany by ORC International in late July 2014 stated that they disagreed with Iceland’s 2006 decision to resume commercial whaling of endangered fin whales and minke whales and over 85 per cent indicated that they would be unlikely to choose to eat or shop at Icelandic restaurants and supermarkets that sell whale meat.
More than four out of five people also stated that they would be unlikely to purchase seafood products from Icelandic fishing companies linked to whaling, this figure rose to 9 out of 10 females surveyed, sending out a strong message that companies would do well to pay heed to consumer opinion.
Latest figures released Monday by Fiskistofa (the Icelandic Fisheries Directorate) reveal that 109 endangered fin whales have been killed so far this season, along with 23 minke whales. This brings the number of whales killed by Iceland to more than 1,000 since 2003.
