iceland

Greenpeace today strongly criticised the Icelandic government's decision to issue quotas to hunt whales for the third year running. The government has just granted permission for 39 minke whales to be killed in the 2005 hunt. The Icelandic go-ahead comes just 2 weeks after so-called 'scientific whaling' was condemned by the International Whaling Commission at its 2005 meeting in Ulsan, Korea.

Iceland moved toward ending whaling yesterday with the announcement it was scaling its 'scientific' hunt back from 250 whales a year to 25.

"This is a major step in the right direction," said Willie Mackenzie from Greenpeace UK "the government of Iceland should realise that whales are worth more to them alive than dead, and cancel the rest of the hunt."

Amsterdam/Reykjavik 4th December 2003
The people of Iceland are on the threshold of choosing a new environmental path for the future and adopting a new view of the whales in its surrounding oceans. A new finding by Gallup, the opinion research firm, has revealed that 48% of the Icelandic public thinks the existence of groups like Greenpeace is "rather important or very important."(1).

As Icelandic whalers continue their hunt in the North Atlantic, the Major of Reykjavik will visit London's Globe Theatre tonight (24th September) to promote Reykjavik as a tourist destination (1). Greenpeace and IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare) will be outside the Globe distributing leaflets and urging the Mayor to add his voice to those calling on the Icelandic government to end whaling in favour of promoting Iceland as a whale watching and nature tourism destination.