杏吧原创

Iceland killed its first minke whale in 14 years on Monday, the second day of the nation鈥檚 controversial return to hunting the ocean mammals.

The Icelandic government approved the resumption earlier in August, and the initial six-week hunt has a quota of 38 minke whales. Whalers aboard the Njordur, one of three vessels killed the first at 1700 GMT off the west coast of Iceland.

Iceland鈥檚 Marine Research Institute, which is carrying out the hunt, says the haul is for scientific purposes. But the move has been widely condemned internationally. The US government has threatened Iceland with a trade embargo.

鈥淲e鈥檙e extremely disappointed,鈥� said Richard Boucher, a spokesman for the US state department, at a press briefing. 鈥淎lthough the program is technically legal under the Whaling Convention, we鈥檝e 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.鈥�

A ban on the commercial hunting of whales was introduced by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1986. Iceland left the IWC in protest five years later but in 2002 managed to vote itself back in, while reserving its own right to commercial whaling.

鈥淛ust a front鈥�

The convention allows catches under special permits for scientific research, but campaigners accuse Iceland of using this as a loophole to hunt whales for commercial purposes. Conservationists 鈥渂elieve that it is just a front for a commercial whaling operation, designed to side-step the IWC moratorium,鈥� says the UK鈥檚 Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

Gerd Leipold, executive director of Greenpeace International agrees: 鈥淭his is simply an underhand attempt to resume commercial whaling.鈥� Greenpeace鈥檚 ship the Rainbow Warrior is currently on its way to Iceland to campaign against the hunt.

But Icelandic scientists say the research is to collect information on the feeding habits of the minke whale. They believe, as the largest predator in the area, the minke whale may have 鈥渁 considerable impact on the future prospects for cod yield in Iceland鈥�.

They say there are 43,000 minke whales in the continental shelf area off the coast of Iceland. 鈥淗istorical catches from this stock have not had any significant impact on stock size鈥� according to latest assessments by the Scientific Committee of the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission, they add.

Whale scat

But the IWC鈥檚 resolution 2003-2 notes that the two-year research programme presented to it by Iceland would allow the killing of 250 whales each year 鈥� 鈥渢hat would provide over 4000 tonnes of edible products鈥�.

The programme anticipates killing 100 minke, 100 fin and 50 sei whales a year. The IWC resolution says that 鈥渃onsiderable concern鈥� was expressed by its scientific committee about the taking of 50 sei whales, which 鈥渨ould likely threaten its recovery鈥�.

It adds that research under a previous special permit on fin and sei whales by Iceland showed that genetic analysis of their 鈥渨hale scat鈥� 鈥� excrement 鈥� would provide an 鈥渋deal non-lethal method鈥� for detecting changes in their dietary habits.

The IWC resolution raises further concerns that most of the research under the previous permit remains unpublished, and the majority of whales previously killed for research were exported. It reads: 鈥淣ow therefore the commission expresses deep concern that the provision permitting special permit whaling enables countries to conduct whaling for commercial purposes despite the moratorium on commercial whaling.鈥�