Iceland allows whaling to resume in ‘massive step backwards’
Iceland allows whaling to resume in ‘massive step backwards’
Activists say that whales will still suffer agonising deaths despite new regulations and monitoring
I would highly recommend the recent Freakonomics Radio series about whaling. It's Episodes 549-551 and the bonus episode from 2023-08-06. If you're firmly against killing any living creature (or at least sentient creatures), I highly doubt it will change your mind (and I don't think that it should or that it tries to), but I also think it is really fascinating learning about the history of the whaling industry and hearing the perspective of a modern whaler in the bonus episode. Putting aside the obvious ethical issues with killing sentient creatures, it's interesting to consider things like whether there's a sustainable level of whaling, what a sustainable quota would look like, and how much we're in competition with certain whale species for harvesting fish as food for our own species. I personally appreciated how unbiased Freakonomics tried to be in their discussion of the topic.
legalize hunting icelandic politicians instead
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Animal rights groups and environmentalists have described as “hugely disappointing” the news that Iceland has given the green light for commercial whaling to resume, after a temporary ban introduced this year came to an end.
The Icelandic government said there will be tougher regulations in place – including better equipment, training and increased monitoring – but campaigners said these were “pointless and irrelevant” because whales will still suffer agonising deaths.
In a statement to the Guardian, Iceland’s minister of foodand agriculture, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, said: “With the expiry of the ban, the ministry is now implementing strict and detailed new requirements for hunting including equipment, methods and increased supervision.
The groups stressed that whales already face myriad threats, including pollution, entanglement in fishing nets, ship strikes and the climate crisis.
Ruud Tombrock, the European director of the Humane Society International, said: “It is inexplicable that minister Svavarsdóttir has dismissed the unequivocal scientific evidence that she herself commissioned, demonstrating the brutality and cruelty of commercial whale killing.
In June, Svavarsdóttir suspended whaling until 31 August after a government-commissioned report concluded that the hunt does not comply with Iceland’s animal welfare legislation.
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I propose we give James Cameron total authority over the US 6th Fleet with carte blanche to resolve this.
Saw a doc about this that said they could only eat a couple of grams/week because of mercury. What a tragedy.
Permanently Deleted
It would be cool to give whales guns and just see what happens.
Like the ocean version of when you give a monkey a gun.
I'm not from Iceland, but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Nice one Iceland
Did we learn nothing from Star Trek 4?
I heard that India is allowing people to wack moneys over the head real good now. It used to be that you couldn't hit them little fellers. Not the cows though. You can't even eat their brain through a small straw like you are told to do to monkeys in some areas of Asia. Regardless, vegans like me can't get into the action. We just massacred a bag of pistachios and that's about as far as we go.
Know why they're called right whales? It's because they're the right ones to hunt.