David @ Tokyo

An update on the situation with attempts to restart the commercial whaling business in Iceland. First a summary of events since late last year:

• October 17: Iceland announces it will resume commercial whaling

• October 22: Hvalur hf lands first Fin whale catch

• October 23: Hideki Moronuki of the Japanese Fisheries Agency is reported to confirm that there is no legal impediment to international trade in whale meat between Japan and Iceland

• November 8: Japanese and Icelandic officials reported to be in negotiations regarding whale meat trade

• January 25: Hvalur hf concedes testing the whale meat for mercury and PCBs has been taking longer than expected

Initially it was reported that

... the tests were to be conducted at "independent laboratories in Europe" and "would likely take a few months."

It turned out to take longer, but Loftsson remained confident of lining up a buyer:

"We have not sold any meat. First we must analyse the meat. When that's done, then there will be no problems" ...

The story came up again in April:

Kristjan Loftsson, Hvalur's managing director, is waiting for the results of a months-long analysis of the fin whale meat his firm put on ice last fall. Once that is complete, he says he will have no trouble selling to buyers lined up in Japan.

He is also waiting for new, and hopefully higher, quotas from the government since the 2006 take was too small to offset the cost of setting up operations mothballed since 1989.

...

"It's good money," Loftsson said of whaling, declining to offer specifics. "If you can catch a proper amount of whales."

...

Loftsson said although he has buyers lined up, he has not signed any contracts and declined to name them or to say how much the meat would fetch.

... Loftsson said the analysis has taken much longer than expected.

"I didn't realise how laborious it is. They want PCBs, mercury and all sorts of analysis. You have to document the results and this is about close to 5,000 figures," he said.

"With all these food scares today, this is just (what) the (buyers) demand."

Once again another story from a few days ago:

Gunnar Berg Jonsson, from the Association of Minke Whale Hunters: "We expect to start hunting whales commercially from the beginning of July, although it is not clear whether the whole quota will be used. If a quota for the following fishing year is given out, we will continue catching minke whales until well into October,"

Regarding the tests:

This was supposed to take only two to three months, but not all of the results have come back.

"A buyer for the meat is available, once all the results are back," said Kristjan Loftsson from the Hvalur whaling company which hunts fin whales.

With a buyer apparently lined up now, whether the trade takes place or not seems to be solely dependent upon the test results (and politics too probably).

A few days ago, an Internet forum received a comment from a poster in Iceland who wrote that

"in the news yesterday here in Iceland ... he [Loftsson? Jonsson?] said that ... he was sure that the fin whale meat would be in japan by the end of summer"

So perhaps we'll be able to judge the veracity of this report by September.




Another aspect to the issue for Iceland is the effect on Iceland's national interests. Apparently tourism hasn't suffered:

... according to the latest statistics, Iceland's tourism industry stayed strong into the end of 2006.

Keflavik Airport saw an 11 percent rise in passenger traffic in 2006, while stays in Icelandic hotels were up by 11 percent in the first 11 months of 2006.

This was confirmed again in the June article:

Many people in the tourist industry, including travel companies abroad, felt that there would be a drop in the number of tourists coming to Iceland as would-be travellers could be put off by Iceland's whaling activities.

Discover the World (DTW) was one such company. They placed a statement on their website saying that they disagreed with Iceland's decision to restart commercial whaling.

"However, we have made it clear that the Icelandic travel industry is also very much against whaling and that they are the main force against whaling in Iceland. Therefore by supporting the travel industry you are not supporting whaling. We have found that this view has been widely accepted and that accordingly people are generally booking holidays there without any problem," said Clive Stacey, managing director of DTW, when asked about the issue.

In fact, there has been an increase in the number of tourists coming to Iceland this year, as has also been the case for the last few years. But this should not be surprising, as flights are now available from far more places than before, and at cheaper prices too.

Iceland's Marine Research Institute also reports that

Based on these assessments it is clear that annual catches of 200–400 minke whales are in accordance with the objective of sustainable utilization of the minke whale stock, as it is widely recognized that the population level giving maximum sustainable yield lies within the bounds of 60–72% of the preexploitation level. The Marine Research Institute therefore recommends that annual catches of common minke whales do not exceed 400 animals and further that catches will be distributed in accordance with minke whale distribution in the continental shelf area.

Also,

The Scientific Committee further concluded that annual catches of 150 fin whales for the next 20 years on the traditional whaling grounds west of Iceland would be sustainable. If catches were spread more widely, annual catches of 200 fin whales are sustainable.

Labels: Iceland, Kristjan Loftsson

We got an update earlier in the month on the status of the new commercial whaling operation being run in Iceland by Kristjan Loftsson.

As one might expect, Greenpeace have gone off and put their propaganda machine to work:

Endangered Whales – Hunted, Stockpiled and Left to Rot on a Rubbish Dump

Nice headline guys... but really?

The Icelandic government's claims of sustainable whaling were harpooned today, after Greenpeace revealed that around 200 tonnes of meat and blubber from endangered fin whales are still in storage, waiting to be tested for chemical contamination and a further 179 tonnes of bones and entrails have been dumped in a landfill site. This information has come to light after an investigation by Greenpeace campaigners in Icelanc.

1) What's wrong with a commercial operator confirming the safety of it's product for human consumption? I'd like to know the product were safe before I buy some (and if I can get my hands on some once it arrives in Tokyo you know I will!)

2) Bones aren't exactly edible, last time I heard. In fact, people tend to use them for other purposes, like carving. Nor is the market for "entrails" on fire. How many westerners out there enjoy cow intestines on a regular basis?

(As it happens, with some whale species, such as the Antarctic minke, pretty much the entire whale can be consumed, but in many species found in the northern hemisphere, contaminant levels in the internals of the animal are above recommended consumption limits.)

The Icelandic whale meat and blubber are intended for export to Japan, despite whaler´s claims that some of the generated product is not fit for human consumption.

Who wants a bet that this statement is a typical Greenpeace misinterpretation of what was actually said?

The Japanese whaling fleet is currently preparing to hunt 10 more fin whales and 935 minke whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, despite having massive stockpiles of more than 4400 tonnes of unsold whale meat in freezers in Japan.

"Massive" stockpiles? There was more than 1,300,000 tonnes of frozen marine product in stockpiles in Japan at the end of November 2006. On what scale is the 4,400 tonnes of whale meat that was in stock at that point in time "massive"?

Greenpeace: over 4,000 tons of whale meat unsold

Environment protection organization Greenpeace claims that the meat of the whales that were hunted in Iceland last autumn cannot be sold in Japan and is consequently piling up.

According to Fréttabladid, Greenpeace spokesman Frode Pleym said there is a very limited market for whale meat in Japan and that it is used for school kitchens and dog food, leaving no reason to continue whaling.

“These supplies don’t scare me. Weren’t they talking about 4,700 tons? That is comparable to every Japanese eating 37 grams of whale a year. Or if one-fifth of the nation would eat whale once a year, this would be enough for one 200-gram steak for each person,” Kristján Loftsson, the director of whaling company Hvalur hf. told Morgunbladid.

He added: “These are almost no supplies at all, if they are right that is. These guys [Greenpeace] are hardly ever right. It is not favorable for business to have no supplies […]. Samples from the meat are being investigated to see if it contains heavy metal such as quick silver and PCB. It is complicated and takes a long time.”

Jón Gunnarsson, the director of Sjávarnytjar ehf., told Fréttabladid: “We have investigated the whale meat market in Japan very carefully and this product is sold there for a high price. […] Nothing indicates that we won’t be able to sell the whale meat.”

The Greenpeace figures of 4,400 tonnes at the end of November 2006 are correct (I corrected them myself), but where they are wrong is in trying to make out that this amount of meat constitutes a "massive" stock, as I illustrate above with some context.

Loftsson is dead right to point out that it is not good business to be out of stock. When your consumers want something, you need to be able to supply it - and the bulk of the whale meat in the Japanese market arrives in March/April and again during the summer months. For the rest of the year, supply is very limited. It has to be stocked to ensure availability for consumers during those times.

I also concur with Mr. Gunnarsson. From a demand perspective, there is going to be no problem selling the meat, it's just a matter of the paperwork. I'm not sure what that entails, but I assume that DNA samples from the whale meat to allow market monitoring will probably be required by officials for market monitoring purposes.

Labels: Greenpeace, Iceland, Kristjan Loftsson

A few months ago back in October 2006, Iceland resumed commercial whaling, with commercial whalers taking 7 fin whales from the 9 whale quota granted by the government.

Nothing much seems to have changed, but here's an update on where they are at:

Kristjan Loftsson, manager of whaling firm Hvalur, said ... firms must first test the meat for dangerous chemicals to see if it meets food industry standards.

"We have not sold any meat. First we must analyse the meat. When that's done, then there will be no problems," he said.

...

Loftsson expects a decision on when Hvalur will start marketing the meat abroad by the end of January, but said the analysis of the meat has taken longer than expected.

"We must prepare and carry out testing carefully. We have never done this before and we have to do an extremely good job," Loftsson said.

Gudfinnsson said there were no laws or regulations in Japan, where Icelandic whaling firms plan to sell most of their catch, to prevent the import of whale meat.

Based on the Japanese articles I have seen, I agree that a supply of 100 tonnes of fin whale meat should easily have a market found for it. Loftsson is absolutely right in taking the time to run the tests pollutants. One point that I haven't seen covered anywhere yet is the process of registering the DNA of each whale with the ICR. Currently all meat sourced from Japan's research programmes is logged on the DNA register, and fishermen wishing to market products based on by-caught whales may also do so on the condition that they provide the authorities with a DNA sample from the whale.

There have been many anecdotes in the media about the negative effect of the whaling decision on tourism, with reports of bookings being cancelled and so forth.

This article provides a different perspective:

... according to the latest statistics, Iceland's tourism industry stayed strong into the end of 2006.

Keflavik Airport saw an 11 percent rise in passenger traffic in 2006, while stays in Icelandic hotels were up by 11 percent in the first 11 months of 2006.

The article unfortunately doesn't provide any monthly figures to substantiate the statement, but based on past history, I am expecting that the impact on tourism from the decision will indeed be limited, ultimately. Iceland resumed whaling in a scientific form in 2003, as opposed to the commercial form of the latest hunt, and the reality is that people who oppose whaling will generally oppose it in any form. Many people who opposed Iceland's scientific permits were also likely under the impression that the research was "commercial whaling in disguise", anyway.

Ironically, an article from The Times that tried to push the argument that whaling would hurt tourism, actually provided a graph indicating that whale-watching tourist numbers to Iceland increased from around 60,000 in 2002 to around 80,000 in 2004/2005 and 90,000 in 2006, indicating the limited impact scientific whaling had on tourism.

Labels: Iceland, Kristjan Loftsson