Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

Iceland Cancels Whale Hunt

An Icelandic whaling company says strict Japanese regulations prevent it from selling contaminated meat from endangered fin whales.

Endangered fin whales in the far North Atlantic Ocean have received a reprieve from being hunted—at least for now.

On Thursday, the Icelandic company Hvalur hf said it will cancel this summer’s hunt for fin whales, the world’s second-largest animal. The company, Iceland’s leading whaling outfit, had planned to kill up to 155 whales this year. Most of that meat was to be exported to Japan.

Iceland’s whale hunt is conducted in violation of the International Whaling Commission’s global ban on commercial whaling.

Fin whales are listed as endangered throughout their range under the United States’ Endangered Species Act.

Kristján Loftsson, managing director of Hvalur, blamed Japanese import regulations for making sales of whale meat in that country difficult, if not impossible.

“Our problem with the Japanese is that they are analyzing for PCB contaminants in the blubber of the whales, using methods that are 40 years old and very inaccurate,” Loftsson said. “We have to give up because we don’t know what will come out of this analysis.”

Loftsson said Japan is the only country not to use updated methods for testing whale meat for PCBs, as established by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

But Kate O’Connell, a marine wildlife consultant for the Animal Welfare Institute, said Loftsson’s claim was “misleading.” She said Japan previously blocked whale meat imports from Hvalur because of contamination with pesticides and that the regulations on pesticides do not apply to marine mammal meat.

“In 2013, a shipment of Hvalur whale products was tested and found to contain levels of [the pesticides] aldrin and dieldrin above the Japanese food safety limits,” O’Connell said in an email. “As a result, Japanese officials have stated that they require testing of whale shipments both prior to and following import due to concerns about contaminant levels.”

RELATED:  One More Reason the World Should Stop Eating Whale Meat: It’s Filled With Pesticides

Japanese food-safety laws are among the strictest in the world, O’Connell said. “The ‘permissible’ levels of aldrin and dieldrin in Japanese foodstuffs are lower than what would be considered acceptable in many other countries,” she said. “Their methodologies do require more lengthy and in-depth testing and take longer, but I imagine consumers in Japan are grateful for this.”

Whatever the reason for Hvalur’s decision, wildlife conservationists applauded the move.

“This is fabulous news that Mr. Loftsson, who is the driving force and individual behind the Iceland hunts, has decided he’s not going to hunt whales this year,” said Phil Kline, senior oceans campaigner for Greenpeace.

Vanessa Williams-Grey, senior whaling campaigner at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, said in a statement, “Harpooning fin whales and shipping their meat halfway round the world to Japan has always been as crazy as it is cruel.”

“It is well documented that whale meat contains high levels of toxins, and much of the meat exported by Loftsson’s company sits, unwanted, in frozen stockpiles,” Williams-Grey added. “It seems that Kristján Loftsson has finally realized that his fin whaling has no future. The end of commercial whaling has moved a step closer today.”

Although Japan has rejected whale meat from Iceland in past years because of high toxin levels, Kline said that was not the only reason for Hvalur’s decision.

“They are under pressure in multiple other ways,” he said. “The U.S. government has maintained diplomatic measures against Iceland in the past couple of years, which has been bothersome to politicians who have to discuss whales when meeting with U.S. officials.”

Kline added that Icelandic whale meat had been blocked from entering some European ports in the past and that some major shipping lines have refused to transport the product.

It is not clear whether Hvalur will resume hunting fin whales.

“We should remember that Loftsson stopped whaling before in 2011 and 2012, yet resumed whaling in 2013,” O’Connell said.

Loftsson said if the Japanese “change their attitude, we’ll start again. But if they don’t, we will not do anything.”

He added that his decision had nothing to do with international pressure against whaling.

“I don’t care about these people, this anti-whaling movement,” Loftsson said. “They are against everything. You name it, they don’t support it.”

Even if Hvalur permanently cancels its fin whale hunt, other Icelandic companies still slaughter minke whales for their meat.

“It’s predominantly consumed by people visiting Iceland,” Kline said. “But if tourists would go there to greet the whales rather than eat them, [the Icelanders] would no longer hunt them.”

http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/02/26/iceland-cancels-its-whale-hunt?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2016-02-26-C

SAV Comment – Taiji dolphins contaminated with Mercury; contaminated whales as we read here – good old man; gradually destroying everything and killing this beautiful planet ! – what about destroying the human species and trying to put things right again ?

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »

We have worked with Lesley at EoA several times in the past to attempt to highlight to national and EU officials the importance of access doors which need to be fitted along the entire length of the transporter.

Here is on link to our past posts on this –

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2014/10/15/netherlands-england-the-importance-of-access-to-animals-during-road-transport/

This crash in Germany supports our evidence yet again that vehicles are not now manufactured to a suitable standard for access to animals should an emergency like this arise.

On January 21st 2015 a Danish-platted livestock- truck with 420 pigs on board tipped over on the highway in northern Germany.

The truck was one of these “newer” models: completely closed sides with automatic ventilation. There were no proper access doors on the side or large openings. When the truck tipped over, the automatic ventilation system naturally stopped and inside it was pitch black. The pigs inside were in complete panic and due to the lack of air, began to suffocate.

The police had to call in the fire brigade to come as quickly as possible to drill holes in the side of the truck just to get air to the pigs trapped inside.

150 pigs died.

By-standers report that the pigs were really suffering inside. Accidents involving livestock trucks are always very unfortunate for the drivers and the animals, but in this case, the suffering was even more unbearable because these new models of trucks do not offer any access to them, and make them literally prisoners inside when something goes wrong.

Eyes on Animals has for years been warning the Member States that permit the manufacturing of such types of livestock trucks (mainly the Netherlands and Denmark) that this model does not fulfill the EC 1/2005 requirements which state that one must be able to access the animals on board and provide first aid as soon as possible and one must be able to easily inspect the animals on board.

We urge the phasing out of these sorts of “closed” trucks as soon as possible. To read our report on the importance of access during transport, click HERE.

To read German newspaper articles about this accident, please see HERE.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »