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Dolphins captured for captivity in Taiji. Image: Hans Peter Roth

Loved and killed – whales and dolphins in Japan

Protests and criticism from outside Japan in response to the slaughter of whales and dolphins...
Irrawaddy dolphin

Helping fishers protect dolphins in Sarawak, Borneo

Fishing nets are bad news for dolphins and porpoises, so we're working with local fishers...
Dolphin watching from Chanonry Point, Scotland. Image: WDC/Charlie Phillips

Discovering inner peace – whale and dolphin watching and mental wellbeing

Guest blog If you've ever seen whales or dolphins in the wild, you'll know that...
Whale tail

An ocean of hope

In a monumental, jaw-dropping demonstration of global community, the nations of the world made history...
The infamous killing cove at Taiji, Japan

Why the Taiji dolphin hunt can never be justified

Supporters of the dolphin slaughter in Japan argue that killing a few hundred dolphins every...
Image: Peter Linforth

Tracking whales from space will help us save them

Satellite technology holds one of the keys to 21st century whale conservation, so we're exploring...
Fishers' involvement is crucial. Image: WDC/JTF

When porpoises and people overlap

We're funding a project in Hong Kong that's working with fishing communities to help save...

Mindful conservation – why we need a new respect for nature

'We should look at whales and dolphins as the indigenous people of the seas -...

Icelandic minke whaler who blamed vet strike for delaying his hunt is forced to retract

Yet more smoke and mirrors from Iceland’s whalers – this time, the turn of minke whaler, Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, who has recently been spending a great deal of time whining and complaining on the radio and elsewhere in the news, that he can’t start his whaling until the current strike by veterinarians ends. In fact, he landed his first minke whale on 11th May and landed at least one more whale on 1st June.  As I write, his boat is off Grindavik to the southwest.

When confronted with the truth, Gunnar was forced to issue a retraction and admit that not only had his company already started killing whales, but the meat from at least one of the whales has already been disposed of under hygiene regulations, due to the vet strike. Whilst the meat from the second whale has been reportedly stored on ice, it is quite likely that it too, will be dumped as there seems no prospect of an early end to the strike.

The first Sunday of June is Fishermen’s Day in Iceland and this coincides with the annual two-day Festival of the Sea in Reykjavik this weekend. in recent years, the minke whalers have attended this festival to serve up barbecued minke whale meat to visitors – it remains to be seen whether Gunnar Bergmann will want to show his face there this year.