Iceland and Whales

By Robbins Barstow, CSI Director Emeritus

Recently an Icelandic writer, Hallgrimur Helgason, wrote an article for Newsday which also appeared in the Hartford Courant. In response, CSI Director Emeritus Dr. Robbins Barstow wrote the following letter to the Editor of the Courant, which was published on the Courant's Letters page on Saturday, October 4, 2003.

To the Editor of the Courant:

Whales do not belong to any one nation. Inhabiting all the world's oceans, they are part of the common heritage of all humankind. This has been affirmed through the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty and the 1946 Convention which established the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for the conservation of whales and the regulation of whaling world-wide.

It is a tragic development for life on our planet that this summer Iceland has joined Japan and Norway in the barbaric killing of the world's largest animals in defiance of repeated IWC resolutions condemning such action.

Icelandic whaling apologist Hallgrimur Helgason in his op ed article "A Whale Of An Argument: Free The Icelanders" [Sept. 28, 2003] suggests that Icelanders have as much right to kill whales as to kill sheep for their food grills.

But sheep are domestic animals living on land, and bred for their wool and meat under Icelandic law. Whales are wild animals living in the sea and conserved for future generations under international law.

Whaling interests in Iceland acknowledge that their primary aim is to sell whale meat to Japan, where it is still a pricey food item providing profits.

Increasing numbers of Icelanders want to be freed from whale killing activities so they can enjoy the rapidly growing industry of whale-watching, potentially much more profitable than whale killing.

In 2002, more than 60,000 people went whale-watching in Iceland. It is the fastest-growing part of Icelandic eco-tourism, second only to commercial fishing exports in its value to the Icelandic economy. The Icelandic Tourist Industry Association has taken a strong stand against Iceland's resumption of whaling.

It is to be hoped that short-sighted profits for a few whalers at the expense of painful deaths for innocent wild mammals in the sea will soon be overcome by the far-reaching enjoyment by many thousands of Icelanders and visitors of the incomparable wonders of peacefully encountering living whales in their ocean home.