Icelandic whale hunt season starts – nearly one million people sign anti whaling petition
In a statement to press, Gunnlaugur Gunnlaugsson, the manager of the Hvalfjordur whaling station in Iceland has revealed that the country’s 2015 whale hunt season is now underway.
Two whaling vessels, Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9, left port in Iceland on Sunday in pursuit of up to 154 endangered fin whales, and at least two have been killed already. Despite an international ban on commercial whaling, Iceland sets its own quotas regarding the number of whales it may kill. News regarding the departure of the whaling vessels comes as Iceland’s whalers try desperately to ship last year’s whale meat to Japan via Russia. WDC is trying to stop this shipment and hit the hunters in the pocket by working with global protest organisation, AVAAZ. In just a few days, nearly 800,000 people have already signed a petition to prevent this boat from leaving port.