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Iceland’s minke whaler vows to continue hunting this year

Iceland’s minke whaler vows to continue hunting this year

Whilst fin whales off Iceland have a reprieve from the harpoons this summer, minke whales in those waters are less fortunate as minke whaler, Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, defiantly declares ‘business as usual’. His company, Hrafnreydur ehf, killed 29 minke whales last year although he could have taken as many as 229 under Iceland’s self-allocated quota,…

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Why whales can help save our planet – if we let them

As Icelanders spend today assessing the damage caused by last night’s “double hurricane force” winds which battered their island, and people in north west England and southern Scotland begin the grim process of mopping up after widespread flooding in the wake of Storm Desmond, few are likely to link these extreme weather events with whales…

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Minke whale baby boom

Increased sightings of juvenile minke whales off western Scotland during 2015 could be down to a mini baby boom according to experts. A survey team from the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) have recorded 28 young minke whales in the area, three times the average compared with previous years. They also recorded the highest…

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Japan to resume minke whale hunts in the name of research

Japan’s Fisheries Agency has announced plans to hunt whales off the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido in just a few days’ time for research purposes. Up to 51 minke whales could be killed during the hunts, which the Fisheries Agency said would contribute to resource management by looking into whale’s ecology through analysis of stomach…

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Icelandic government official questions whale hunts

A leading member of the Icelandic government has questioned the extent of the country’s whale hunting in a surprising interview with a local news service. In the first acknowledgement of its kind from an Icelandic government official for many years, Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson, Iceland’s Foreign Minister has indicated that Iceland should consider reducing its whaling…

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