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Iceland Won’t Be Killing Whales This Summer!

Iceland Won’t Be Killing Whales This Summer!

 

This summer, the Icelandic whaling fleet will stay in port and will not kill any whales. Kristján Loftsson, the managing director of Hvalur whaling company, is the driving force behind Iceland’s whaling industry and has been keeping it afloat for years. Loftsson had planned to kill 155 fin whales and ship most of the flesh to Japan. However, Japan has blocked imports of the meat due to contamination with pesticides, deeming it unfit for human consumption. Japanese food-safety laws are among the strictest in the world.

This is good news for the whales. Fin whales are the world’s second largest animal and are listed as endangered throughout their range under the United States’ Endangered Species Act. Commercial whaling has been banned under a global moratorium enacted by the International Whaling Commission in 1985. Iceland is one of a handful of countries that continued commercial whaling in violation of the moratorium, to the chagrin of millions of people around the world. The cancellation of this summer’s hunts in Iceland brings the world one step closer to being completely free of commercial whaling.

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