Skip to content
All news
  • All news
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Corporates
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
  • Stranding
  • Whale watching

Dominica announces new protections for sperm whales

Dominica has placed almost 800 square kilometers of sea off the west coast of the...
Commerson's dolphin

New Important Marine Mammal Areas added to global ocean conservation list

Commerson's dolphin Experts from a number of countries have mapped out a new set of...
Vaquita. Photo Thomas Jefferson

Scientific Committee gives first ever official species extinction warning

Photo: Thomas Jefferson We have welcomed the urgent call by experts to protect the vaquita...
blue whale

Whale fossil from Peru may have been heavier than blue whale

Scientists examining the bones of a 39 million-year-old ancient whale have concluded that it may...

Desperate Icelandic minke whalers now have humpbacks in their sights

 

Iceland’s minke whalers have announced their interest in hunting humpback whales for ‘scientific research’. Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, director of the  Minke Whalers’ Association, has declared his company’s interest in such a move, whilst Sverrir Daniel Halldorsson, whale expert at  HAFRO (the government institute responsible for conducting ‘research’ into Iceland’s marine resources and setting ‘sustainable’ catch levels), said that it makes sense to allow the hunts, which could be accompanied by population surveys and other research. The whalers want to take ten humpbacks a year over five years, with results used to inform future hunts.

The minke whalers have found it hard to locate sufficient whales this season and have incurred heavy financial losses.  By contrast, they say that humpback numbers have increased dramatically, especially to the north. 

WDC says: Humpback whales have not been killed in Icelandic waters for around 60 years.  Whilst a few are taken in indigenous hunts elsewhere, this species is not hunted either commercially or for scientific purposes anywhere else in the world. Humpbacks are protected by international conventions and there is no doubt that Iceland will face a barrage of international criticism, should it sanction such a hunt.