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
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...
Humpback whale © Christopher Swann

Humpback whales breach in synchronisation

Humpback whales are renowned for their incredible acrobatic displays, but a family in the USA...
Long-finned pilot whale

Unusual activity witnessed before pilot whale stranding

Just days after a pod of long-finned pilot whales stranded on an island in the...
All policy news
  • All policy news
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Stop whaling
  • Strandings

Minke whale hunts stop in Iceland

Iceland’s commercial hunt of minke whales has ended for this year. The common minke whale is the...
Port River dolphins

New report reveals 100,000 dolphins and small whales hunted every year

When you hear the words ‘dolphin hunts’ it’s likely that you think of Japan or...

Japan set to resume commercial whaling

Reports from Japan suggest that the government they will formally propose plans to resume commercial...

End the whale hunts! Icelandic fin whaler isolated as public mood shifts

Here’s a sight I hoped never again to witness. A boat being scrubbed and repainted...

Australian Government to block Japanese whaling proposal

Japanese Government officials have reportedly confirmed that they will propose the resumption of commercial whaling...

Did Icelandic whalers really kill a blue whale?

*Warning - this blog contains an image that you may find upsetting* They say a...

Icelandic whalers breach international law and kill iconic, protected whale by mistake

Icelandic whalers out hunting fin whales for the first time in three years appear to...

Pregnant whales once again a target for Japanese whalers

Figures from Japan's whaling expedition to Antarctica during the 2017/18 austral summer have revealed that...

Doubts remain after Icelandic Marine Institute claims slaughtered whale was a hybrid not a blue

Experts remain sceptical of initial test results issued by the Icelandic Marine Institute, which indicate...

Norway's whaling season begins

April 1st saw the start of the whaling season in Norway. Despite a widely-accepted international moratorium...

SOS alert for whales off Norway!

I have to admit to bitter disappointment when I arrived in Tromsø, northern Norway, a...

Icelandic fin whale hunting to resume

Iceland’s only fin whaling company, Hvalur hf,  announced today that it will resume fin whaling...

Doubts remain after Icelandic Marine Institute claims slaughtered whale was a hybrid not a blue

Experts remain sceptical of initial test results issued by the Icelandic Marine Institute, which indicate that a whale controversially killed just a few days ago by whalers was a blue/fin hybrid, not a pure blue.

Blue whales are a protected species even in Icelandic waters but hybrids are not and, despite their equally rare status, there are no penalties for killing a hybrid blue/fin whale.

According to a press release, the Institute states, “the genetic results confirm the preliminary assessment that the whale in question that was caught on July 7th was a hybrid of a fin whale father and a blue whale mother.”

Following the release of images of the whale, after it was landed on Saturday, 17 scientists believed that Iceland had broken international law by killing a blue whale and called for a halt to the whaling company’s (Hvalur hf.) operations.

Due to massive pressure from blue whale experts, the media and the public, the genetic testing was fast-tracked and the results were published last night.  

However, doubts still remain about the testing. Vanessa Williams-Grey, policy manager at WDC, commented that “given that it is in the Icelandic whalers’ interest to have this whale confirmed as a hybrid – thus getting them off the charge of killing a blue whale – how can we be sure that the testing process was genuine and robust? We demand transparency and call for the results to be scrutinized by independent experts”.

Whalers in Iceland dismiss hybrids as ‘anomalies of nature’ and have already killed four of only five known hybrids since 1983. Even though hybrids are infertile in other animal species, a blue-fin whale hybrid that was caught in Iceland in 1986 was found to be pregnant. This makes hybrids extremely important to research and can help us to understand evolutionary and ecological processes.

“Whether ‘true blue’ or a hybrid that happens to look extremely like a blue whale, one thing is clear: this was a rare and special whale”, Williams-Grey continues, “if the whalers mistook him for a fin whale but think their ‘mistake’ is without consequence that tells you everything you need to know about the callousness and ineptitude of this industry.”

 Blue whale blow

Arne Feuerhahn, CEO of Hard to Port, who initially brought the slaughtered whale to public attention, has also cast doubt on the DNA test results and said they are in favour of Havlur hf. owner, Kristján Loftsson. Hvalur hf. has a quota to kill 161 fin whales in 2018, and unfortunately, hybrids are included.

Iceland’s Prime Minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir is now under growing pressure from international media and increased opposition to whaling in her own country and Iceland’s whaling laws are up for review this year.

We need to keep up the pressure and need your help! If you are in central London this Friday, 20 July at 1 pm, please join a peaceful protest outside the Icelandic embassy in Knightsbridge.