The news that whaling may occur in Icelandic waters from 2019-24 is very disappointing.
I’m not suggesting that a 15-minute chat with the Icelandic Prime Minister is likely to have made that much difference but it did feel, when I was in Iceland in September, that the movement was in the right direction.
We’ll have to see whether the possibility of licences is turned into licences being issued, and then being exercised, and to what extent.
For my Icelandic-speaking readers (there are some – but not many) here are two stories in Icelandic suggesting that the decison by the Fisheries Minister was based on science (I’m sure it was – it’s certainly sustainable in fisheries’ terms to kill whales in Iceland when most others have stopped killing them. Sustainable but selfish, and the science has little to say about the morals of the case.) and another saying that the decision is being disputed by the left/green coalition (Yay!).
[registration_form]
Disappointing but not entirely unexpected.
‘sustainable but selfish’? Maybe, though eating livestock (which I do) is clearly unsustainable and selfish.
But those livestock are not wild animals that have to struggle to survive. They were domesticated specifically so that their wild brethren would not need to be hunted. Apples and pears.
Though the habitat that has been destroyed to accommodate them has meant the loss of very many wild animals. Animals that have lost their home for good rather than being hunted sustainably. It’s apples and apples really.
Talking has failed – time for action!