|
Iceland Resumes Commercial Whaling
On
October 17th, 2006 the Icelandic government announced its
intention to resume commercial whaling – in blatant defiance of the
global ban or moratorium on commercial whaling which has been in place
since 1982.
Iceland, as a founding member of the International Whaling Commission
(IWC) did not object when the moratorium was agreed to in 1982.
When
the moratorium came into effect in 1986, Iceland, like Japan exploited
a loophole in the whaling convention and started conducting lethal
‘research whaling’. In 1992 Iceland left the Commission altogether
and in 2002 it controversially rejoined the IWC and lodged an
objection to the moratorium. The vote to re-admit was won by a one
vote – Iceland’s! Seventeen countries, including the U.S. lodged
objections at this farcical situation but Iceland has been continuing
to attend IWC meeting, even though two countries, Mexico and Italy,
continue to refute the legality of its membership.
Less
than a week after this troubling announcement, Icelandic whalers had
already slaughtered three endangered fin whales. Iceland says that it
will slaughter six more fin whales and 30 minke whales during the
2006/7 season as well as an additional 39 minke whales as part of its
continued ‘research’ program.
Fin whales - the
world’s second largest animal - are currently listed as endangered on
the World Conservation Union’s 2006 Red List, both species are listed
on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) and the fin whale is classified as endangered under
the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
In response to this
outrageous news, AWI has sent a
letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce calling on the US to strongly
respond to Iceland’s outrageous actions by re-certifying Iceland to
the President to allow for sanctions against trade from Iceland; to
withdraw its offer of a joint fin whale status review; to call on the IWC to convene a special meeting and to issue a demarche or diplomatic
protest to Iceland.
How You Can Help
Please send your
own polite letter of concern to the President of Iceland, the U.S.
Ambassador to
Iceland,
The Minister of Fisheries and the Minister of Foreign Affairs in
Iceland. Email letters can be copied to the editor of the
Morganbladid, a prominent Icelandic newspaper at
readers@mbl.is
which has been created specifically for this purpose.
|
