WDC Blog - From the Front Line

Our thoughts are with the people of Iceland - it seems early reports suggest that residents in the capital felt buildings shake, but it is not yet clear if there were any injuries.

In the nearby town of Selfoss buildings are reported to have been damaged and residents have poured onto the streets.

The BBC has more news

Iceland 0: W(h)ales 1

Here we go again. Scared that they may get excluded from any future 'deal' on coastal whaling Iceland's Fisheries Ministry is off allocating a quotas for 40 minke whales.

But it seems there is discord in the ranks, with Össur Skarphéðinsson, the Minsiter for Industry, stating that he is displeased with the Fisheries Minster’s decision to issue a quota for 40 minke whales..Einar K. Guðfinnsson, the Fisheries Minister said that in his view there was no difference/discord among the government parties on the issue.

Bloomberg reports that commercial whaling isn't endorsed by the Social Democratic Alliance, the junior partner in the ruling coalition together with the Independence Party. Foreign Minister Ingibjorerg Solrun Gisladottir said in a statement that the hunt 'is sacrificing long-term interests for short-term gains.''

We have never seen such differences so publicly aired. Maybe this is the last ditched attempts of a failing industry - lets hope so.

The UK's ambassador has already condemned the resumption of whaling.

The International Herald Tribune is reporting that 'Pro- and anti-whaling lobbies want to end their acrimonious disagreements of recent years and pursue a more diplomatic solution to Japan's annual whale kill, a senior official said Friday'.

The article goes onto say 'The deal could involve New Zealand and Australia dropping their threat to take action against Japan in international courts to try to prove the country's so-called scientific whaling program is a sham that breaches International Whaling Commission rules.

New Zealand's IWC Commissioner, Geoffrey Palmer, told The Associated Press that legal action against Japan's scientific whaling was not off the table but would be difficult to pursue.

"The solutions to these problems that are very deep-seated in the IWC I think lie in diplomatic channels," said Palmer, a former prime minister'.

WDCS believes that the solution does not rest with giving in to Japan and giving them commercial whaling in any guise, be it so-called 'coastal whaling' or any other form of whaling. It's still the industrial slaughter of whales, - it's just that some countries can get off the hook of having it their back yards if some sort of 'diplomatic' deal is struck.

Keep watching, this one is going to get rough as we progress through the next IWC.

So the scientific advisors to the US Government are telling the US Executive that further controls on shipping speed in Right whale habitat are needed, - and the Government's reaction: - Blah!

Chairman Waxman, of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee has released letters from the White House which appear to reject NOAA's recommendations for what he call's 'baseless objections' by the Executive.

Waxman notes that faster moving ships hit the whales, causing injury or death,
and thats not him or just us as NGOs saying that, but scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who say so.

- But this is not so, says Cheney's office and other White House officials, who have delayed approving the NOAA's submitted rules.