ICELAND鈥檚 parliament has voted to resume commercial whaling. The motion,
passed by 37 votes to 7, comes prior to a general election on 8 May and follows
a Gallup Poll last autumn which showed that 81 per cent of Icelanders are in
favour of resuming whaling.
The motion would allow hunting to begin again in 2000. It will become law if
it is ratified by the incoming government. J贸hann Sigurj贸nsson,
director of the Marine Research Institute in Reykjavik, says: 鈥淎ny quota will
fall within the 291 minke whales that scientists conservatively estimate as a
sustainable cull level.鈥�
Countries opposed to whaling are horrified, but can do little to influence
Iceland short of imposing trade sanctions. Iceland stopped commercial whaling in
1989, but quit the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1992. Norway,
Europe鈥檚 only other whaling nation, is still in the IWC, but has been killing
several hundred whales a year, having exercised its right to lodge an objection
to the commissions鈥檚 moratorium on commercial whaling.
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