The only active whale in Iceland, Hvalur, will not hunt the whale this summer, for the second consecutive year, due to world economic turbulence, according to the local press.
Iceland, Norway and Japan are the only countries that still allow commercial hunting for the whale, largely condemned by animal defense associations. “Hvalur HF. Account Cancel the whale hunting season scheduled for this summer. Employees of the company were informed earlier this week, “the RUV media wrote on its site.
“As the economic situation appears to us, Hvalur HF. Does not see any other option than staying on the dock and waiting for better days, but the situation will be reviewed next year, “said his CEO Kristjan Loftsson, quoted Friday evening by the MBL media.
Towards a total ban?
Several reasons have been mentioned by the local press: inflation in Japan, where the company flows almost all its stocks, the evolution of the prices of products in this country and turbulence on the global markets due to customs duties.
In Iceland, whale hunting generally takes place between mid-June and September. But in recent years, Icelandic whalers have rarely managed to reach their quotas.
The second Icelandic hunting company definitively hung up the harpoons in 2020, believing that it was no longer profitable.
Last year, the country suspended whale hunting for two months following a government investigation, which concluded that the methods used were not in accordance with animal welfare laws.
In a message sent to AFP on Friday evening, the director of the animal defense association Humane World for Animals, Wendy Higgins, praised the cancellation of hunting for 2025. “It is high time that Iceland’s whale ships definitively stop dyeing the sea in red-it is time to establish a total ban on whale hunting,” she said.
