 Tourists Following a Minke
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Aug. 19, 2003 — Four days after ending a 14-year moratorium on whale hunting in defiance of world opinion, Iceland's whalers reported their first catch on Monday after media boats that had disrupted earlier efforts left the scene.
The crew of the Njordur whaling boat from Reykjavik shot the first minke whale caught in Icelandic waters for more than a decade.
"The new explosive harpoon worked well and the animal died immediately," Njordur's captain Gudmundur Haraldsson told AFP.
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While whalers had sighted a number of minke whales on Sunday and Monday, they fired no shots until two boats with media crews on board had left the scene, as whalers followed strict instructions from the Icelandic Marine Research Institute.
Haraldsson said the two boats hired by international and local media that had been following the Njordur since Sunday had left for port on Monday morning and after that he could start the hunt in earnest.
Johann Sigurjohnsson, director of the IMRI, confessed in an interview with Icelandic state radio on Monday that security concerns were not the only reason it forbade whalers to take a shot with the media closer than one nautical mile.
Sigurjohnsson said it had to be taken into account "that unpleasant pictures can be made of the hunt, undermining its scientific value."
In the face of widespread international criticism, Iceland on Friday said it was resuming whale catches for the first time since the International Whaling Commission imposed a ban on commercial hunting in 1986.
Iceland's Marine Research Institute has said the whalers may kill a maximum 38 minke whales between Aug. 15 and Sep. 30.
It says the hunt will help provide information on the feeding habits of the minke whales by allowing scientists to study the slaughtered animals' stomach contents.
Whalers are obliged to take samples from a wide region around Iceland.
Scientists say the information is needed to draw up an accurate estimate of the Icelandic fish resources on which the whales feed. Scientists also hope to discover the age, health and reproductive systems of the whales, as well as their exposure to persistent pollutants such as organochlorines.
Theirs is the first such study since similar research was carried out between 1977 and 1980.
Opponents of the hunt say Iceland risks damaging a valuable whale-watching industry that has developed since the ban on commercial catches. Before the ban, Iceland caught about 200 whales a year.
The Icelandic government says the hunt is unlikely to have an effect on whale stocks. Iceland estimates there are 67,000 minke whales in the mid-Atlantic, including 43,000 in Icelandic waters.
U.S. Renews Sanctions Threat
Meanwhile, the United States on Monday reminded Iceland that its resumption of lethal whaling could draw U.S.
The State Department reiterated harsh criticism of Reykjavik's scientific whaling program.
"We're extremely disappointed with Iceland's decision to begin a lethal research whaling program," spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"Although the program is technically legal ... we've said many times that lethal research on whales is not necessary and the needed scientific data can be obtained by well-established, non-lethal means," he told reporters.
"The taking of whales by Iceland will likely trigger a review by the Department of Commerce of Iceland's lethal scientific whaling process program for possible certification under the Pelly Amendment," Boucher said.
The Pelly Amendment, part of the U.S. Fishermen's Protective Act of 1967, can be used to impose economic and trade sanctions on countries Washington determines have been engaged in the killing of certain protected species of marine life.
Boucher could not say if such a review had begun but said the United States was keeping a close eye on the whale hunt.
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