The Minister of Fisheries Svandis Svavarsdottir announced the plan to ban definitively commercial whaling in Iceland within two years as demand for whale meat, since Japan resumed the practise in 2019, has decreased dramatically becoming no longer profitable for the country.
Unfortunately, Iceland is one of the countries that together with Norway and Japan still hunt whales for commercial purposes despite the International Whaling Commission (IWC) agreed in 1982 to stop all commercial whaling by 1986.
Hundreds of whales have been killed in recent years considering that Iceland’s annual quotas allow for the hunt of 209 fin whales – the second-largest whale species on the planet and 217 minke whales, one of the smallest species.
Although the reason behind the decision may be not as animal friendly as we would wish, the result is what at the end matters the most.
People are becoming more and more careful when choosing their holiday destination. They start preferring countries in which animals and environment are safeguarded and respected. People want to travel ethically!
More info about whale hunting in Iceland: https://us.whales.org/our-4-goals/stop-whaling/whaling-in-iceland/
