Endangered Whales Hunted, Stockpiled and Left to Rot on a Rubbish Dump

January 23th 2007:

The Icelandic government's claims of sustainable whaling were harpooned today, after Greenpeace revealed that around 200 tonnes of meat and blubber from endangered fin whales are still in storage, waiting to be tested for chemical contamination and a further 179 tonnes of bones and entrails have been dumped in a landfill site.

This information has come to light after an investigation by Greenpeace campaigners in Icelanc.

The Icelandic whale meat and blubber are intended for export to Japan, despite whalers claims that some of the generated product is not fit for human consumption.

The Japanese whaling fleet is currently preparing to hunt 10 more fin whales and 935 minke whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, despite having massive stockpiles of more than 4400 tonnes of unsold whale meat in freezers in Japan. At the end of last year a single whaler, given a commercial license by the Icelandic government killed seven fin whales.

"Iceland claims their commercial whaling is sustainable but how can they justify it when they are hunting endangered species, without domestic demand, and over-supply of whale products in Japan?" said Greenpeace whales campaigner Jo McVeagh.

"Both Iceland and Japan continue to whale in the face of domestic and international opposition, even though there is no scientific, economic or environmental justification for it," she added.

On Thursday the Greenpeace ship Esperanza will sail to the Southern Ocean, from Auckland, in order to put themselves between the grenade-tipped harpoons and the whales, to stop individual whales being killed.

ENDS

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