Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 17 Feb 09;
OSLO - The United States and five other nations have called on Iceland's new government to drop a plan to step up whale hunts that whalers say would create jobs in the shattered economy, diplomats said on Monday.
The letter expressed "extreme disappointment" in a decision by the former government, which quit down last month over the island's financial collapse, to permit annual catches of 150 fin and 100 minke whales.
"We call on Iceland to reconsider this decision and focus on the advancement of the (International Whaling) Commission, and the long-term rather than the short-term interests of the whaling industry," it said.
The letter, seen by Reuters, was signed in Reykjavik, by senior diplomats of the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Finland and Sweden. An international moratorium on whaling has been in force since 1986.
The new government of Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, which took office this month, has said it will review the decision to resume whaling.
Iceland ended a 20-year ban on commercial whaling in August 2006, issuing quotas that ran through August 2007. After a temporary halt, the country resumed whaling in May last year, despite protests by environmentalists.
As one of its last acts before it resigned over the economic crisis, the centre-right administration of Prime Minister Geir Haarde announced in January that Reykjavik would set five-year quotas for fin and minke whales.
Whalers have placed advertisements in Icelandic newspapers this year saying the hunts could bolster the economy by creating jobs for exporting whale meat to Japan.
"Whaling belongs to the past," said Martin Norman of environmental group Greenpeace. "There's no real market for the meat in Japan. This won't create jobs."
Fin whales are rated as endangered by the international Union for Conservation of Nature, which groups governments, scientists and conservation groups. Minkes are not among threatened species and are plentiful in the Atlantic.
(Editing by Jon Boyle)
Seven countries urge Iceland to reconsider whaling quota
Yahoo News 17 Feb 09;
REYKJAVIK (AFP) – Seven countries including Britain, Germany and the United States have urged Iceland to reconsider a decision to increase its whaling quota sixfold, a copy of a letter obtained by AFP Tuesday showed.
Iceland's former government announced the increase in late January as one of its last moves, but a new left-wing interim government that came to power just days later said it would reconsider the increase.
"We are writing to you today to express our governments' extreme disappointment in the decision of your predecessor to issue a quota for 150 fin and 100 minke whales to be harvested in Icelandic waters," ambassadors and charge d'affaires from the seven countries wrote in the letter to Icelandic Fisheries Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson.
"We applaud your interest in re-evaluating this decision," they said in the letter dated February 12, adding: "We call on Iceland to reconsider this decision."
The other countries that signed the letter were Finland, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Prior to the recent announcement, Iceland, which pulled out of an international whaling moratorium in 2006 after 16 years, had a quota of just nine fin whales and 40 minke whales per year.
"It is critical that the continuation or expansion of Iceland's commercial harvest or international trade in whale meat does not undermine goodwill or hamper progress in resolving issues pending before the (International Whaling) Commission," the letter said.
Iceland and Norway are the only two countries in the world that authorise commercial whaling. Japan officially hunts whales for scientific purposes, although the whale meat is sold for consumption.
