“Australia should start whaling too!”
Kristján Loftsson, CEO of Hvalur. Photo: Ómar Óskarsson
CEO of Hvalur, Kristján Loftsson, has told Australian media that, far from opposing whaling, the country should begin hunting the “nuisance” animals itself.
In an interview with Nick Miller of The Sydney Morning Herald, Loftsson explains that rising whale populations off the Queensland coast are a threat to shipping and, potentially, the economy.
The Sydney Morning Herald has recently reported on record numbers of humpback whales off New Zealand.
Whaling “sustainable and logical”
As previously reported by Iceland Monitor, Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson has recently indicated that Iceland should look into reducing the amount of whales it hunts in the light of international criticism.
Certain parts of the Icelandic population appear to be coming to the conclusion that restoring the country’s reputation by ditching whaling may be more profitable than the whaling industry itself.
Loftsson is unconvinced. “We look at the whale stocks here […],” he explains. “It’s just a sustainable industry like fishing. You go on sighting cruises, you find out what the stocks are and you set the quota accordingly. It’s the utilisation of a resource in the ocean. We have the equipment so why not carry on?”
Indeed, Iceland’s Marine Research Institute regularly advises the government on sustainability of hunting whale populations.
Tourists in Iceland want whale meat
Loftsson dismisses many of the moral and political arguments put to him by Miller.
“The brains of whales are not big compared to the size of them. They are small,” he explains. “All these guys in the [International] Whaling Commission […] haven’t a clue what they are talking about. Where is this f***ing world opinion [against whaling]?”
“Loftsson […] sees whales as a marine resource his country has every right to continue to exploit,” writes Miller. The Icelandic fishing giant also suggests that tourists come to Iceland to try out delicious whale meat just as much as they come for whale-watching trips.
“You have some [activists] here run by some of these US [environmental] groups,” he says. “They are just a handful of people. They are pretty loud but I am not worried about these.”
